Suburbicon

Beard Blog Movie Review 2017 Roundup

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Beard Blog movie rankings for 2017

Ranking the movies I’ve seen in 2017 from best to worst. Some I have reviewed and some I have not. Click on the link to read the full review for each applicable movie.

  1. Lady Bird – 9 / 10
  2. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – 9 / 10
  3. Star Wars – The Last Jedi – 8.5 / 10
  4. Get Out – 8.5 / 10
  5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – 8 / 10
  6. The Big Sick – 8 / 10
  7. The Disaster Artist – 8 / 10
  8. Baby Driver – 8 / 10
  9. Thor: Ragnarok – 8 / 10
  10. It – 8 / 10
  11. Jigsaw – 7.5 / 10
  12. Mother! – 7.5 / 10
  13. Stronger – 7.5 / 10
  14. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle – 7.5 / 10
  15. Kong: Skull Island – 7.5 / 10
  16. Murder on the Orient Express – 7.5 / 10
  17. Battle of the Sexes – 7 / 10
  18. Logan – 7 / 10
  19. Life – 7 / 10
  20. John Wick: Chapter 2 – 7 / 10
  21. Logan Lucky – 6.5 / 10
  22. Alien: Covenant – 6.5 / 10
  23. Dunkirk – 6.5 / 10
  24. The Hitman’s Bodyguard – 6 / 10
  25. The Fate of the Furious – 6 / 10
  26. The Wizard of Lies – 6 / 10
  27. The Circle – 6 / 10
  28. American Made – 5.5 / 10
  29. Baywatch – 5 / 10
  30. The House – 5 / 10
  31. CHiPS – 5 / 10
  32. All Eyez On Me – 4.5 / 10
  33. XxX: Return of Xander Cage – 4 / 10
  34. Suburbicon – 3 / 10

 

More reviews to come in 2018!

Beard Blog Movie Review: Suburbicon (2017)

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Nothing like this ever happens here.

A white man living in 1950s cliche suburbia contracts the mob to kill his wife so he can collect insurance money and run off with his sister-in-law. This plan unravels faster than you can say Suburbicon.

Suburbicon
Matt Damon struggling to get through this movie

First of all, I have a few problems with this movie:

  1. The actress that plays Matt Damon’s wife and sister-in-law is the same person, Julianne Moore. They don’t look different in the beginning and then the sister-in-law character goes a step further and basically becomes the wife.  [perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”…it carries a lot of white guilt through the whole film.”[/perfectpullquote]
  2. We are given little to no information upfront about what is going on in Suburbicon which would be fine, but most of it never gets explained.
  3. The characters are so bland, emotionless, and boring that you never feel for any of them. At the end I was thinking “Oh well…”

In addition to those problems, theres a bigger, more upsetting issue with this film. While the aftermath of the mob hit is going on, there’s an entire plot around a black family moving into this previously white-only neighborhood. Suburbicon spends so much time on this, you think it has something to do with the main plot, but it actually doesn’t. I’m not sure why it was written into this movie but it carries a lot of white guilt through the whole film.

I love the Coen brothers’ movies. They have written some great American classics such as Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and No Country For Old Men, to name a few. Lately their writing has been a snooze, literally. I fell asleep all three times I tried to watch Hail Caesar! That, Inside Llewyn Davis, and A Serious Man have all been very weak in my opinion. But, as a die-hard Coen bros fan, I had to see this movie.

Unlike other Coen brothers movies, Suburbicon is directed by George Clooney which probably made a difference, for the worse.

Who should watch this movie? Fans of the Coen Brothers

Who should not watch this movie? Just about everyone

Score

3 / 10 – Most of the acting was good, but the directing and writing was very weak.

 

See more of my movie reviews here

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