George Clooney’s Suburbicon looks like a high-tension fever dream of suburban America, where a seeming idyll devolves quickly into a hellscape of murder, lies, and broken glasses. It just premiered at TIFF to somewhat mixed reviews, and a new trailer has arrived on the heels of its screening.
If Netflix can bring David Letterman back to TV, you can bet they’d have a good shot at landing the Coen brothers. The revered directing pair have officially joined Netflix as the home of new western anthology series The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, set for a 2018 premiere.
In the idyllic planned community of Suburbicon, everything appears to be in its right place. Apple-cheeked kids race home from school every afternoon, white picket fences outline immaculately manicured lawns, and a cheery mailman greets you in the same way at the same time every day. But there‘s trouble brewing in this homogeneous paradise. Is that a drop of blood?
Here’s a new theory I’ve been testing out as of late: the more inscrutable a TV episode’s plot summary is, the better it will ultimately be. It first dawned on me during the glory days of Mad Men’s run, when viewers were regularly given no more to work off of than some variation on “Next week, Don does a thing, and is sad.” The current airing of Twin Peaks’ revival season doubled down on the concept, almost taunting viewers with how little salient information the summaries provide. (A recent highlight merely read, “Don’t die!” which is actually pretty solid advice when you’re watching Twin Peaks.)
There is a whole lot going on with Universal’s Scarface reboot. Today brought a few big announcements: first off, Joel and Ethan Coen, who are script doctors in their own right, have been tapped to rework the screenplay. The two have previously polished the scripts of Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken and Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies. But we’re not done yet. While Antoine Fuqua exited the project to focus on the Equalizer sequel, the film is close to landing a new director, and Peter Berg and Hell or High Water’s David Mackenzie are frontrunners.