FILM

Hood life

Based on a real life friendship between Fred Rogers and journalist Tom Junod, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is a beautiful film. Whimsical, sweet, complicated and full of warmth, just like that polite guy who used to put on his cardigan and sneakers for little children for many years on PBS.

Who plays Fred “Mister Rogers” Rogers in this movie? Why, Tom Hanks, of course. You don’t get more perfect casting than the world’s most likeable actor playing one of history’s most likeable guys. The recent revelation that Hanks is an actual sixth cousin of Rogers is no surprise.

Hanks plays Rogers in an honorable way. He doesn’t impersonate the man so much as adapt some of his mannerisms, his winning smile and that slow, concerned cadence in his voice. The performance stands as a terrific homage to a wonderful person.

But Fred Rogers is a supporting player—albeit an important one—in director Marielle Heller’s (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) heartfelt movie. The main protagonist is Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys of The Americans), a troubled journalist who grumbles upon getting an Esquire Magazine assignment to do a profile on the PBS icon—the guy with a “hokey” TV show.

The two first talk on the phone, but Lloyd eventually journeys to WQED in Pittsburgh, home of the beloved TV show, to see the master in action. Rogers instantly starts interviewing the journalist as much as the journalist interviews him, and Lloyd bristles at first. Over the course of the film, Rogers and Lloyd become friends, and Rogers helps Lloyd in his dealings with his wife Andrea (Susan Kelechi Watson of This is Us), his dying father (a mightily good Chris Cooper) and his newborn son.

Heller brilliantly frames her film as an episode of the TV show, starting with Hanks delivering the infamous welcoming song, and then introducing Lloyd Vogel as a friend who needs help. As the characters travel between different cities, the cities are depicted like the train sets that on the TV show. It creates the impression of an episode of Neighborhood.

There’s no evidence of the father-son relationship at the center of this film in Tom Junod’s original article, “Can You Say … Hero?” Junod himself admits that he never got in a punch-up at a sister’s wedding, a prominent event near the film’s beginning. Fictional or not, the handling of the father-son relationship in this movie is heart-wrenchingly good, and Junod has acknowledged that the friendship Heller displays in her movie is much like the one he had with Rogers.

As an adult, I have a new appreciation for Fred Rogers. He always weirded me out when I was a kid, a kid who was more interested in being entertained by The Electric Company and Sesame Street than by the guy with the sweater. Still, I did watch a lot of his shows before and after my favorites and, in retrospect, I realize that Mister Rogers taught me more about life and my fellow human beings than any of those other children’s shows ever did.

There was a warmth to the show, a warmth that made a bullied, antisocial younger kid such as me a little uncomfortable, just like Lloyd Vogel in this movie. As I grew older, I lightened up a bit, just like Lloyd Vogel in this movie.

I think there will be a lot of people who feel the same way after seeing this movie. It’s going to open up a few doors in your heads and hearts, and even make you cry a bit. It’s going to make you love Tom Hanks even more than you do now, if that’s even possible. And it’s going to fortify your precious remembrance of Fred Rogers, the sweet guy in the sweater who talked right at you from the TV screen, be it with his haggard puppets or ever-present smile.

Yeah, the movie messes with you a bit. But sometimes that’s a very good thing. Ω

“Master of puppets, I’m pulling your strings/ Twisting your mind and smashing your dreams.”

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood 12345

2Doctor Sleep Stephen King fans know he hated Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining for trivializing Jack Torrance’s alcoholism and redirecting the evil powers of the Overlook Hotel. In essence, Doctor Sleep, his sequel to The Shining, almost seems to exist partly to right some of the wrongs that King perceived in Kubrick’s movie. Alas, Mike Flanagan, the man behind the excellent and creepy The Haunting of Hill House, makes the decision to incorporate Kubrick’s film into his own adaptation of Doctor Sleep. The results are a mixed bag of genuinely scary moments and passages that make the film too dependent on the glory of Kubrick. The film starts with Danny Torrance riding around the Overlook on his Big Wheels, and making that dreaded stop in room 237 where the old lady has stayed in the bathtub way too long. The film then jumps ahead to Dan as an adult, played by Ewan McGregor. Dan, like his daddy before him, drinks a lot. In some ways, which I won’t give away, King gets a chance for some do-overs, as some of the scenes and themes in Doctor Sleep reference parts of King’s original novel as well as the sequel book. King has long bemoaned the ending of the Kubrick’s film, and I can see why he might like the Doctor Sleep conclusion. As for me, I thought the movie was better when it wasn’t hanging around the Overlook Hotel. The moments in the Overlook, although visually impressive for sure, felt like little more than a stunt, with no real, viable reason for the protagonists to be running around in Kubrick’s nightmare.

4Ford v Ferrari It’s the 1960s, and Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) has had it up to here with Enzo Ferrari (Remo Girone) and his fast, flashy car ways. He and cronies such as Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal) and Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas) are chapped, and they want to send a message to the world that Ford isn’t just about family cars. Enter Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon), a former race car driver turned designer and salesman after a heart condition benches him. Ford hires Shelby to design and race a car that can beat Ferrari in races, mainly the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It’s a tall order, and it calls for a crazy guy behind the wheel and calling the shots in Ken Miles (Christian Bale), an English-born rule-breaker who can drive a car and instantly know what can be fixed on it to make the damn thing go faster. His lack of convention causes Ford to bristle, Shelby gets in the middle, and we have ourselves a gripping tale about racing technology, volatile friendships and corporate clashes. If you go to this film looking for glorious depictions of high stakes auto racing, you will not be disappointed. Director James Mangold (Walk the Line) films Ford v Ferrari in a way where you feel every gear shift, every hairpin turn, and every moment when a car can skid off the tracks and cause grave injury. In this sense, the movie is simply at the top of the auto movie genre. If you go looking for powerhouse acting, you won’t be let down either. Damon and Bale are otherworldly good as two pals who have no problem punching each other in the face on occasion, but always strain to have each other’s backs.

2Joker This new take on DC’s Clown Prince of Crime will go down as one of the year’s big missed opportunities. Director Todd Phillips, mostly known for his Hangover movies, apparently got the green light to do whatever he wanted with the Joker mythos. Phillips blows this chance. Phoenix is otherworldly good as Arthur Fleck, a severely troubled clown and standup comedy wannabe—and mama’s boy—with a condition that causes him to laugh uncontrollably at inappropriate moments. He physically and mentally disappears into the part, to the point where you may become concerned for the actor’s well-being. When we first see Fleck, he’s dressed as a clown, spinning a sign and generally having a good time. He promptly gets his ass kicked, and not for the last time. We then see him in therapy and living in poverty with his quirky mother (Frances Conroy). Fleck slowly but surely starts to lose all sense of his humanity as he grows into a criminal monster. Phillips even casts a game Robert De Niro to play a talk show host that winds up being a nod to Miller’s David Letterman riff (David Endocrine) in The Dark Knight Returns. At its most derivative, the screenplay echoes A Beautiful Mind, filmed in a way that feels like a hackneyed Shyamalan twist. In the end, it’s an unoriginal film only partially buoyed by an incredible performance.

4The King Partly inspired by real events and partly by the plays of William Shakespeare, Timothee Chalamet plays Hal, King Henry V of England, and it’s a barnburner of an acting turn. Chalamet has made a name for himself playing complicated, quiet characters before, but this one gives him a chance to rage on occasion, and he’s more than up to the task. Joel Edgerton, who co-wrote the screenplay, is on hand as Falstaff, Hal’s complicated right hand man, and Robert Pattinson, once again, shows that he just might be the finest actor of his generation with a brave and crazy performance as the Dauphin of France. Simply put, Pattinson’s accent in this movie is one of the greatest things I’ve witnessed in a movie this year, as is his final stunt in full armor. Director David Michod stages some fine action scenes, and Lily-Rose Depp makes a nice late film appearance as Catherine, Hal’s bride to be who will not stand for any of his toxic masculinity bullshit. Chalamet and Pattinson impress the most in a period piece film that works, a grand experiment that pays off. I want a sequel. (Streaming on Netflix.)

3Lady and the Tramp Disney+, the new Disney streaming service, has this available on day one, a sweet little live-action redo of the classic 1955 animated feature. This works primarily due to the casting of both the actual dogs and their voices. Justin Theroux, a notorious dog lover, is perfect for Tramp, a Schnauzer hybrid living the street life. The dog he provides the voice for is the spitting image of his animated counterpart. Tessa Thompson provides vocals for Lady, a cute-as-all-heck Cocker Spaniel. The live-action animal talking is well done, and more engaging than that recent remake of The Lion King. The plot remains simple: rich dog meets stray dog, rich dog becomes stray dog, dogs fall in love. There are some major changes—no “Siamese Cat Song”—but fans will find a lot to remind them of the original (spaghetti scene!). Your kids will love it, and if it’s any indicator of the upcoming quality of the new Disney+ streaming content, things are off to a decent enough start. (Streaming on Disney+.)

3Zombieland: Double Tap Since the release of the first Zombieland back in 2009, much has happened in the entertainment land of the undead. A decade later, Emma Stone has an Oscar for La La Land, Woody Harrelson got his third nomination in that stretch, and Jesse Eisenberg was nominated for The Social Network. Abigail Breslin also had an Oscar nom before the first film for Little Miss Sunshine. With all of this Oscar business, might this crew of performers opt for more snobby fare rather than blowing up ghoul skulls for laughs? Nope, director Ruben Fleischer returns with the whole crew—shockingly—intact for Zombieland: Double Tap, a film that does little to reinvigorate the genre, but still delivers plenty of laughs. It’s basically the same as the first movie, but with some more laughs thanks to a new costar. The zombie killers have taken up residence in the White House, with Wichita (Stone) and Columbus (Eisenberg) in a relationship that requires them to cover up the eyes on the Lincoln portrait when they bed down at night. Tallahassee (Harrelson) is still searching for Twinkies with a new goal to visit Graceland while leaving shredded zombies in his wake, while Little Rock (Breslin) wouldn’t mind having her first boyfriend ever at the age of 22. it all becomes a road trip again, one that eventually leads to Graceland—sort of—and a commune called Babylon. It’s a basic sequel with enough laughs and genre fun to earn a look.