Scenes from the Suburbs (2011)

Drama, Music, Short /
7.2/10
85% – Critics
85% – Audience

Scenes from the Suburbs Storyline

Directed by Spike Jonze, Scenes from the Suburbs is a half-hour short film inspired by Arcade Fire’s Grammy(r) award-winning album The Suburbs. Hailed as “absolutely f–king gorgeous” by INDIEWIRE at its U.S. premiere at 2011’s SXSW festival, this collaborative effort between Spike and the band is a part of Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs Deluxe release.—Anonymous

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Scenes from the Suburbs Movie Reviews

a tug on the heart and questions for the head

Before I watched this, I watched the complementary music video to “The Suburbs” (the first track on the album of the same name). I recommend watching both.

As someone who is questioning society’s ideas of what it means to grow up, this story is a touching one. At first glance, to the uninitiated, it could come off like just another teen drama love triangle. That would be a tragic misinterpretation of this fine, authentic piece of art, and it would fall short of Arcade Fire’s sensibilities and desire to deal with what’s really going on with “America” beneath all the “issues.” (At least, that’s my interpretation of most of their work so far.) For, as opposed to some Disney story that pits friends against each other for a girlfriend/boyfriend, this isn’t about that kind of relationship. In fact, it has nothing to do with the female character–it’s about a friendship between two guys. A friendship torn apart by change (not good change) and fear as one of them pulls away from the group as accepts the deeper disease behind what the authorities in his life are telling him, and portraying.

The unique symbolism of how our “communities” have become is a minimally-important background for a youthfully-, authentically-acted short drama between childhood best friends.

I don’t want to give the plot away, so I’ll just end this by saying I now understand the album lyrics “With my old friends I can remember when / You cut your hair, I never saw you again.” The questions it leaves us with are deeply important in this nation of detached souls.

Should we look a certain way to grow up? Should we surrender to the world’s system to grow up? *Should* we grow up?

I like Arcade Fire and Spike Jonze, but wasn’t crazy about this

Spike Jonze teamed with Arcade Fire in 2011 to make this short film based on the latter’s 2010 concept album, The Suburbs. It’s a great one (some would say Arcade Fire’s last great album, but I’d disagree – 2013’s Reflektor is fantastic and people are mean), but unfortunately, this 30-minute accompaniment isn’t so good.

Firstly, I should say it’s not terrible. It’s right on the cusp of being something good. It gets off to a strong start, it evokes a sense of nostalgia (paired with some unease, for good measure) effectively, and when it uses Arcade Fire’s music front and centre, it really works.

Unfortunately, the story it was trying to tell muddies and worsens the story told in the album. This is not like 1982’s Pink Floyd – The Wall where the film adaptation clarifies and dramatises an album’s more obscure story.

Visually it looks pretty good, but the sound mixing is all out of whack. Music’s loud while some dialogue is barely comprehensible. It spells some things out too obviously while being annoyingly obscure about other things, making for a watch that eventually becomes frustrating. Die hard Arcade Fire and/or Spike Jonze fans might get something out of it, but I wasn’t really a fan.

(Not a criticism of the film, but I can’t help but feel like it’s awkward how there’s a conversation between characters in this film about consent, after allegations broke in 2022 about misconduct by the band’s frontman, Win Butler, who also co-wrote this short film).

Scenes From The Suburbs –

I just finished watching Scenes From the Suburbs on www.mubi.com where it was posted on Monday and I have to say that it was very good. “Scenes From The Suburbs” is about a group of friends who live in a town that appears to be in some sort of local war. However, the film does not explicitly mention why the town is at war and it is focused more on the teenagers as they grow up over the summer. The young actors, particularly the main one whose name I cannot remember, are great and felt authentic. The cinematography was beautiful and I think Spike Jonze did a great job at directing. I liked how the music by Arcade Fire felt natural for the film. However, I can’t help but wish it was a little bit less ambiguous and I think I enjoyed the music video for The Suburbs more than Scenes From the Suburbs. Overall, I enjoyed “Scenes From The Suburbs” and I think that if you love Arcade Fire then it is a must. Also, this just makes me eager to see Spike Jonze’s next project.

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