Ah, fall. Summer is for turning your brain off and accidentally wandering into a theater playing “The Emoji Movie.” Autumn is for movies that aren’t just comic book movies (but those, too). There’s only one month left in the summer, meaning it’s time for trailers like the one for “Suburbicon,” in which Matt Damon plays a dorky ’50s dad who takes on the mob after they kill his wife and repeatedly ransack his home. It’s a comedy, and the trailer boast a punch-in-the-face for the ages, which puts a good spin on the old line, “You wouldn’t hit a man with glasses, would you?”
The “Suburbicon” trailer actually buries the lead. No, not that it’s the latest directorial effort from George Clooney — a rather spotty auteur, if we must be frank, whose best work may still be his first: the Charlie Kaufman-written “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.” The real draw is that it’s written by Joel and Ethan Coen. The pair first conceived it back in 1986, shortly after “Blood Simple” but before “Raising Arizona.”
When a Coens script is directed by someone who’s not Joel and/or Ethan, the results aren’t all that spectacular; witness the almost totally unseen remake of “Gambit,” starring Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz. (Or don’t witness it!) Still, Clooney’s close ties to the brothers — some of his finest, most bananas turns are in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”, “Burn After Reading” and “Hail Caesar!” — implies he won’t muck it up.
And it does look funny, and very dark. Fellow Coens alums Julianne Moore, as Damon’s dye-blonded sister-in-law, and Oscar Isaac, as a gangster, look to be in fine form, though the trailer is missing Josh Brolin, who plays an un-yet-determined role. The movie will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September before hitting theaters on October 27.
Watch the trailer below:
