When the first trailer for SUBURBICON was released, many (including myself) found footage darkly comic and taking into account the script from the Coen Brother we all assumed we were in for an awesome black comedy from director George Clooney. Turns out we were wrong to think that, as Clooney has come out and said despite a few laughs the movie is in fact seriously grim.
Speaking with EW, Clooney said that assuming the movie about a family in the 50s (Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, Noah Jupe) being attacked by a home invader is a black comedy is a “misconception,” and that in reality the movie is meant to be “angry” and “dark”:
There’s some misconceptions. They keep calling it a ‘comedy’ and you’d be hard-pressed to find a lot of funny in it. It’s a pretty angry and dark film, which is sort of what we wanted to make at the time. Every time I see someone go, “Yeah, it’s a black-comedy!” you go, “There’s a couple of laughs, but it wasn’t designed to be ha-ha funny.”
He took it a step further, equating it to a Disney movie that turns into a psychedelic nightmare…much like FANTASIA:
It’s very, very dark. It starts out feeling like a Disney film and, by the end, it feels like it takes a pretty dramatic, serious turn to, like, an acid trip of some form.
Well, consider me enlightened.
When watching Matt Damon scoot away from a crime scene on a children’s bicycle I couldn’t help but chuckle, making me think this would obviously be some darker comedy, perhaps a satire of suburban life. But clearly I was wrong, and going back to watch the trailer there does appear to be a hint that when the shit hits the fan it’s going to be more heavy than quirky. Now we know, and though the promotion of the movie may push some more laughs for the sake of marketing, the movie we will actually see could possibly be vastly more interesting and jarring an experience. But no matter how dark it gets, we will always have Damon on a kid’s bike.
SUBURBICON arrives October 27.