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Suburbicon | 2017 | R | - 4.6.6

It's 1959 and Suburbicon, a planned middle-class suburb, two events demonstrate that it is not the idyllic community it seems to be: two men break into a house and a woman is killed and when an African-American family moves to the suburb, the white residents try to violently drive them out. With Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, Oscar Isaac, Jack Conley, Noah Jupe, Tony Espinosa, Glenn Fleshler, Gary Basaraba, Karimah Westbrook, Alex Hassell and Leith M. Burke. Directed by George Clooney. [1:44]

SEX/NUDITY 4 - A young boy hears a woman yell and takes a kitchen knife to investigate in the basement where he finds a woman leaning over a table and a man standing behind her with a racket in his hand (presumably hitting her with it); the man is shown from behind with his pants down and we see his bare legs to the upper thighs. A man and a woman lie in bed together wearing pajamas and she traces his face with her finger, unbuttons his pajama top and kisses him, then climbs on top of him and sex is implied.
 A man and a woman dance close together with candles lit in the room and she wears a dress that has an opening in the back that reveals her upper back. A man leans over and tells a woman to put her arms around a man's neck as he lifts her to put her in her wheelchair; the woman's husband seems anxious about it, but she says she doesn't mind.
 A man asks a woman if she is sleeping with another man.
 A woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage.

VIOLENCE/GORE 6 - A man yells and grabs his throat, he gasps and runs out of a house (we understand that he has ingested lye) as another man follows him with a fireplace poker and strikes him in the head; the man falls dead on the road and we see the poker stuck in his head as the other man puts his foot on the dead man's head to pull the poker free (we see a pool of blood on the road and we later see the attacker with blood splattered on his face and pooled on his shirt). A man grabs a woman around the throat and strangles her (we see the action in silhouette and we see her dead on a bed later). A man with a knife enters a boy's room and reaches for him under a bed as the boy screams; another man enters the room, there is a scuffle and two gunshots ring out (we see holes open in the floor next to the boy); a man's bloody hand reaches under the bed for the boy and we see him with blood on his shirt later. A man drags a body off a road and puts it in the trunk of his car (we see blood on the body and the man); the man later puts the body in the driver's seat and leaves. A man is shown with a knife sticking out of his back and his shirt is very bloody. A man is shown slumped motionless over a table.
 A man in a car follows another man on a bicycle and the man in the car is struck head-on by a truck; the two vehicles careen off the road and we see the driver of the car very bloody with glass surrounding his head as the car explodes. A man punches another man in the face and we see a bloody cut on his nose (we see his black eye later), and then slaps him across the face twice. Many men yell and press against a police barricade outside an African-American family's house; they break windows with baseball bats, place a confederate flag in a window and set their car on fire.
 Two men tie up a man, two women and a young boy and then use a cloth with a chemical liquid to knock them unconscious; the man pleads with them as they are each knocked unconscious (we see the boy in a panic and trying to get free as the man holds him with the cloth over his face and we see one of the women convulsing as her face is covered with the cloth). A woman crushes pills of some sort (we do not see what kind) and puts the dust in a sandwich and glass of milk for a young boy to ingest (he does not eat or drink them). A man gives a boy a handgun and hides him in a clothes closet.
 A man wakes his young son saying, "There are men in the house," and takes him downstairs where two men are threatening the man's wife and her sister. A man describes a scenario where someone could be stabbed and killed and then the boy could be killed. A woman yells at a man and tells him to leave her house, and then threatens him with a broom. A man tells another man to take care of "the kid and the lady." A man pounds on his car dashboard a few times. A man speaks sternly to his young son and pounds on the table startling the boy.
 A man and a woman look at a lineup of potential criminals at a police station and the lights in the room where they are standing are turned on so that the men in the lineup can see them and they become alarmed. Two men tell another man to get them a drink on a tray; he reluctantly does as they ask. A man asks if anybody died in a car accident (no one died). A man talks to his young nephew about the boy's mother dying. A man talks about wanting to, "Turn them inside out till their blood...,"and he is interrupted. A man speaks sternly to his young son. A woman speaks sternly to a young boy after he says he's not eating anymore and that he wants to go away. A man tells a man's secretary to, "Sit down lady." A police officer tells a man that another man, "Got killed in a vehicular on the turnpike," and describes the man as a loan shark for the mob. A man enters a woman's home as she tries to tell him that he should come back later to speak to the man of the house.
 Many people surround a house where an African-American family has moved in and make loud noises and watch the family's activities for many days. Many people yell and pound on drums behind a fence as an African-American woman hangs her laundry in her yard on the other side of the fence. Many people yell angrily at a community meeting and one man reads a statement about their civil rights being infringed upon because and African-American family has moved in. A young boy sees the two men that broke into his house and killed his mother and he panics. An African-American woman shops at a neighborhood grocery store where the manager tells her that everything is much more expensive for her and that she'd probably find better prices elsewhere. A mail carrier delivers mail to a new neighbor and is taken aback when the new neighbor is African-American and other neighbors stare at the woman of the house who takes the mail from the carrier.
 A man drives his car and is nearly struck by a speeding fire truck. People are seen gathered at a funeral in a cemetery. A woman is shown confined to a wheelchair and we learn that she was in a car accident and that her husband was driving.
 Two boys listen to a radio play that seems to make them anxious. A young boy plays war with plastic soldiers. A man puts coins in a boy's pocket and then puts the boy over his shoulder and shakes him. Many people tell family members that they are sorry for their loss. A woman talks to a man about having lost their life savings. A man tells another man, "I could've dropped dead."
 A man is shown recovering documents from his burned out car as his wife picks up garbage from the lawn. A young boy pulls a small snake out of his pocket and gives it to another boy.

LANGUAGE 6 - About 15 F-words and its derivatives, 2 sexual references, 5 scatological terms, 2 anatomical terms, 4 mild obscenities, 5 derogatory terms for African-Americans, name-calling (clowns, morons, schwarzes, liability, buffoon, you Jews, Reds, big man, withdrawn, animals, sullen, stupid, crazy, mental case, fat, tricky), exclamations (shut-up, hanky panky), 2 religious profanities (GD), 10 religious exclamations (With God's Help, Jesus Christ, My God, God Bless Her, God Bless Ya, I Swear To God, Oh God, She's With Jesus Now).

SUBSTANCE USE - Two men drink small glasses of alcohol. A man has an unlit cigar in his mouth, a man smokes a cigarette in a meeting hall, and several men smoke cigarettes outside on the sidewalk and the street in a few scenes.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Racism, intolerance, home invasion, robbery, infidelity, parenting, insurance fraud, murder, Episcopalians, integration, starting over, rumors, the NAACP, oppression, being tested.

MESSAGE - Seemingly idyllic communities cannot hide bigotry and crime forever.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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