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One Movie Punch


Dec 2, 2019

Hi everyone!

Welcome back to Matinee Mondays! We’re continuing the Oscar contenders this week with a review of A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD. Get ready to hear a lot of repressed tears and sobbing, but that’s okay. If you want to get a taste of that, definitely check out my review for WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? (Episode #193). I’ll do my best to keep it together.

Before the review, we’ll have a promo from the Mitchell Report Unleashed podcast. Every episode, Rory Mitchell brings you a direct and diverse podcast about sports, fitness, culture, and relationships. You can connect with him on Twitter @officiallyrory, on Facebook at @mitchellreportunleashed, and on Instagram @re3684. You can also find the podcast on all major platforms, but based on anchor.fm.

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Here we go!

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<< MITCHELL REPORT UNLEASHED PROMO >>

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Today’s movie is A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD, the semi-fictionalized biopic directed by Marielle Heller, written for the screen by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, and inspired by Tom Junod’s article for Esquire entitled “Can You Say... Hero?”. The film follows... fictional Esquire journalist Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), who is tasked to write a brief article about the legendary Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks) for an issue about heroes. While Lloyd avoids dealing with the return of his father into his life, he decides to see if Fred Rogers is as real as his television personality, and gosh darn it, where are all these tears coming from?

No spoilers.

I’m officially in the bag for today’s film. If you’ve listened to my review for WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? (Episode #193), you’ll know I don’t really consider myself able to be objective when it comes to Fred Rogers. I’ll even let you know right now that I pretty much had tears in my eyes and rolling down my face through the first two-thirds of the film, doing my best to allow myself to experience my feelings instead of trying to fight them down. Men, at least where I grew up, were pre-programmed to bury their feelings, and were definitely teased for crying, or for liking someone like Fred Rogers. So, this review is as much about me proving my own objectivity while still reveling in the most emotional film I’ve seen all year.

A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD defies a lot of standard film structures, something we understand right away when the film opens on a set for “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood”, using crisp, high quality recording and filters. We’re moved quickly into a different type of recording, one meant to replicate the quality of public access television in 1998, which will immediately trigger feelings of nostalgia for anyone who grew up with Mister Rogers. Fred starts introducing us to Lloyd Vogel, as if he were to be a guest on the show, before a sweeping title sequence begins, complete with models used for location changes, which makes us realize we’re now inside a two-hour episode of the show. It’s so effective at helping the viewer enter the experience, and as we did with the show, immediately identify with Lloyd Vogel.

Using the formation of Tom Junod’s article as the basis for this story is a stroke of genius, particularly for generations that grew up without someone like Fred Rogers in their lives. Many of us are taught to be two people in life: a private persona and a public persona. Our public persona conforms to social standards while our private persona tends to conceal our more difficult feelings and issues. Maintaining both personas is one major source of the general skepticism in Western culture. We hide our feelings and desires and issues, and so we suspect other people are doing so as well. Fred Rogers was the exact same person in public and in private, consciously choosing to live the best and most genuine life he could, and as he says in many interviews, has been privileged or blessed to do so given the success of the show. While our parents and our peers were teaching us to hide our feelings and never show weakness, Fred Rogers was there offering to help us unpack complicated emotions and liking us just the way we are.

Lloyd Vogel’s journey, then, also becomes our journey, and the more skeptical the viewer is as a person, the stronger they will identify with Lloyd. My skepticism began to melt away, though, as we moved to a third video format – one akin to the on-location shoots by Fred Rogers for the videos on Picture Picture. Sure, we see that in its proper context as Vogel follows Rogers around one day in New York, but we also see the format from time to time when Lloyd Vogel is dealing with his personal problems. Problems that Fred takes an interest in, and when Lloyd is trying to come to terms with his life, and trying to adopt Rogers’ advice, the film changes to this format. The entire film cycles between these three formats, blending very well, but also very effective to help tell and augment the story. Heller is to be praised for this seamless integration, earning all the appropriate Oscar nominations if there is any justice.

Watching Hanks as Fred Rogers is simply incredible. The transition isn’t immediate, not until we’ve fully gone down Heller’s rabbit hole into the multi-faceted story. It’s hard to figure out whether Hanks is a lead character or a supporting character in this film, another unique trait. Fitzerman Blue and Harpster obviously want to target the skeptics with Lloyd Vogel, and Heller wants to capitalize on the nostalgic filming techniques and feel, but Hanks is tasked with communicating the complexity of Fred Rogers, which he does splendidly.

Fred Rogers is so much more than his character on the television, including being a pastor, a husband, and a father in his private life, and a celebrity, innovator, and force of nature in his public life. Even if he always tried to be the same person no matter to whom he was speaking, Hanks manages to exemplify the correct roles in the same ways that Rogers often did. We get snippets of those other public and private roles, but Heller and Hanks take us one step further to show us glimpses of what a world could be like if we adopted his social-emotional development standards for all children, and if we re-adopted those principles back into ourselves. These moments are to be cherished, and relished, and one scene in particular, which comes out of left field but also at exactly the right moment, will go down as one of the greatest scenes in cinematic history. One perfect minute of filmmaking, perhaps the best scene Hanks has ever filmed.

A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD is a film like no other, about a subject like no other. Marielle Heller composes a multi-framed, atypical film that deals with skepticism, trauma, others, and ourselves. Hanks gives a signature performance, including one of the best scenes he’s ever done. Fans of Mister Rogers, or anyone who struggles with their feelings as a child, teenager, or an adult, should make an effort to see this film, and to learn more about this incredible man.

Rotten Tomatoes: 96% (CERTIFIED FRESH)

Metacritic: 80

One Movie Punch: 10/10

A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD (2019) is rated PG and is currently playing in theaters.