What comes to mind when you think of the 1950s? The Cold War, Sputnik, McCarthyism, post-war prosperity? Cheerful suburban home life following white flight from America’s cities, white picket fences, housewives with towering hairdos, and friendly neighbors? Or maybe we have come to see through the facade of an all-inclusive, welcoming community; a fragile edifice pitched during a time when racism, segregation, and housing district redlining were still running rampant. Suburbicon attempts to tackle these romantic anachronisms of the mid-20th century to reveal the violent torrent of racism and paranoia that lurked underneath, threatening to explode into chaos and social upheaval. Unfortunately, the movie is a god-awful mess that fails to provide any of these topics proper examination.

Image Via: Freakingeek.

Filmmaker Ridley Scott has been behind the camera for almost five decades, and though he is extremely talented he remains an enigma. How one man can be responsible for both Exodus: Gods and Kings and Alien (among other horrible failures and stunning triumphs) is utterly baffling. I am a big fan of Scott’s best work like the aforementioned Alien, Gladiator, or Black Hawk Down. However his failures such as Exodus or Prometheus are so awful they tend to make one wary of seeing any more of his films. So is his latest film another failure or another best picture contender? As it turns out Scott has made another fantastic film. The Martian is a surprisingly engrossing gem. The film thoroughly captures the journey, the sacrifice, and the work of one man as he struggles to survive on a barren planet over thirty million miles from Earth and the efforts of NASA to bring him home.