Suburbicon finds frequent Coen Brothers
collaborator George Clooney doing his best impersonation of the filmmaking
siblings. Actually, I hope it’s not his best impersonation or we’ve got
problems. Behind the camera, Clooney so obviously apes his pals that his film
has no personality of its own.
Not content with being a huge star, aging more gracefully
than any human ever to live, and selling his tequila brand for a billion dollars, George Clooney continues to make the rest of us mere mortals look like
turds by directing movies. His latest, the Coen Brothers-scripted
Suburbicon is one we’ve been keeping an eye on. The first
trailer just dropped and it’s pretty much what you expect, and I mean that in a
good way. Check it out.
Any time Joel and Ethan Coen make a movie, it’s going to be
an event that captures my attention, and such is case with Hail, Caesar!. A bouncy, energetic dalliance into the Hollywood studio
system of the 1950s, this is a well-meaning romp full of whip-cracking dialogue
that only the Coens can pull off, homages to the classic genres of yesteryear,
and quirky characters that would become stilted in the hands of any other
filmmakers.
A Coen Brothers movie is always worth getting excited about.
As such, we’ve been keeping an eye on their upcoming Hail, Caesar!,
and today is our lucky day, as the first official trailer is here.
As much a I love dystopian, post-apocalyptic, and otherwise
bleak science fiction—that’s kind of my jam if you missed my giddy excitement
for Mad Max: Fury Road—the darkness and weight can get
overwhelming from time to time. So I certainly understand where director Brad
Bird and writer Damon Lindelof are coming from with
Tomorrowland, trying to provide a more hopeful vision of the
future. Unfortunately, I wish they’d stayed where they were instead of
developing this smarmy, too-proud-of-itself movie.
We could sit here all day and argue about our own personal
definitions of science fiction, especially in regards to Alfonso Cuarón’s
latest offering, Gravity. While the film does lack some of
the traditional speculative hallmarks of the genre, like a futuristic setting,
technology run amok, and pushing the present bounds of science, the action does
go down in space. For all the flashing lights, fancy NASA equipment, and mind
boggling cinematography, this is a story very much rooted in the current age,
in the here and now. But doesn’t matter what the hell label you settle on,
because regardless of what you call it, Gravity is an
incredible movie, and the best reason this year to drag your ass to the theater
and drop the extra cash on an IMAX ticket.
