Suburbicon (2017)

Unlike the critics, Jack and I didn't hate this absurd, funny, and disturbing story, beginning with the first African-American family moving in next door to the scene of a home invasion in a 1950s planned suburb. Matt Damon (last blogged for The Martian) is great as the unraveling man of the victimized house and Julianne Moore (just seen in Wonderstruck) adorable as his partner. Young Noah Jupe (new to me but with a handful of credits) is quite convincing as the terrorized young son and Oscar Isaac (most recently in these pages for Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens) brings his usual intensity and some humor to a pivotal role in the second act.

You may wonder why I have mentioned only white actors. That's because the African-American family next door is given short shrift, even as things happen to them. Joel and Ethan Coen (last blogged for Hail, Caesar!) wrote and were to direct a movie ten years ago about a home invasion, with George Clooney in the Isaac role. The project fell through. Clooney was working on another project with his writing/producing partner Grant Heslov (together they wrote The Monuments Men and Clooney directed it), based on a racism incident in Philadelphia. Someone thought it would be a good idea to mash them together and Suburbicon was born, with Clooney as director and all four credited with the screenplay. Beware of spoilers in this article about the movie's origins. This is one of those times that too many cooks, er, writers, have spoiled...well, you know the rest.

For the record, the Mayers family next door is played by Karimah Westbrook as the mom, Leith M. Burke as the dad, and Tony Espinosa as the son (all new to me, though I have apparently seen some of the work of each).

The prolific and supremely talented Alexandre Desplat (last scored American Pastoral) brings us music alternately lilting, soothing, and intense which can be streamed from this link.

Splat! Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are averaging 26 and 24%, respectively. You can wait for cable but there are some pretty funny moments if you have patience.