Here’s how the NYT describes the latest George Clooney/ Matt Damon production: “Suburbicon, a jaundiced, hard-sell comedy, wants you to know that the American dream was always a crock…it’s a story about the good old American days of prosperity and prejudice, of race hate and white people who are always just one clenched fist away from becoming a mob.”
The film is a transparent culture war torpedo aimed at American prosperity and middle class values. In a different milieu it might have succeeded, but in perhaps a positive sign for the times, Suburbicon is a box office disaster.
It had the worst opening sales of any Paramount movie on record. It has been called the worst film of Clooney’s career, and is the second worst box office bomb for Matt Damon. This has been a particularly bad year for Matt Damon, who has separately been accused of aiding in the cover-up of the Harvey Weinstein sexual assaults.