A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: In These Troubling Times, Is There a Better Movie for Families?

Movie Review: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)
Version: Library Blu-Ray

If you are tempted to watch A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood as a pleasant romp down your distant childhood memories, set that aside. Yes, there are many wonderful elements to that in this film. But A Beautiful Day is much more than that. It is an intricate and complex story wrapped around the very deep and dark background of Esquire magazine investigative reporter Lloyd Vogel, who facing challenging assessment at work receives a difficult assignment: a simple and seemingly unchallenging short interview with children's hero Mr Rogers. Vogel sees this as beneath his talents and skill level, but when his boss insists he take the assignment and make the most of it, Vogel relents. And so begins a voyage of personal discovery that will change his life.

This is a dual story. It is both about Vogel's relationship with his father and Rogers's relationship with his audience, which includes, surprisingly, not just children but many adults -- really anyone who hurts. And as Vogel tries to interview Rogers for his short hero biography, Rogers interviews Vogel to discover why he has a disagreement with his father. Vogel realizes his assignment really deserves much more space than the magazine is giving it, although his editor keeps telling him to finish it up, it's just a simple assignment. But pursue the full story Vogel does, and although he resists Rogers's probing, Rogers digs deeper, too.p

Tom Hanks plays Fred Rogers with perfection. He is wise and caring while aware of his own foibles. Matthew Rhys plays Lloyd Vogel effortlessly. He is edgy and angry while allowing a cheeky vulnerability. Susan Kelechi plays Vogel's insufferable but supportive wife Andrea. Maryann Plunkett plays Rogers's endearing and indulging wife Joanne. Enrico Calantoni plays Bill, the protective production company chief always at Rogers's side. Together, they breathe life into this amazing true story.

Your Mr Rogers whimsy will be well fed with the music, the set decoration, the puppets, references to show segments. Perhaps you will relate to the love of the man in scenes with groups of strangers joining in greeting him with his theme song, one in particular as Rogers and Vogel take a New York City subway car and children and adults alike sing "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood". He will inform you of his ideas on treating fear and anger and anxiety, and how he wasn't a perfect man by any means, but how he dealt with it. And you will fall in love with that same Mr Rogers all over again.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is a wonderful film. Yes, it's dark and brooding in places, as was Lloyd Vogel. But it's also deeply caring and nurturing, as was Fred Rogers. In these troubling times, is there any better movie for families to gather around? I doubt it. See it together.

The Post: Something Seems Amiss

Movie Review: The Post (2017)
Version: Library Blu-Ray

I am from the Boomer generation, so I remember Daniel Ellsberg, the Washington Post, and the battle with the Nixon Administration over the Pentagon Papers. The Post is that dramatic story told from the view of the Washington Post with two of the world's best stars: Meryl Steep as Washington Post owner Kay Graham and Tom Hanks as its editor Ben Bradlee.

In this film version of the story, Kay Graham has taken over as publisher of the Washington Post after the death of her husband amid doubts of her ability to lead. The Post has been operating more as a city paper instead of the national paper it should be, trying to compete against the giant New York Times, which keeps scooping them on big stories on their home turf. Ben Bradlee is driving his reporters to dig deeper and harder, but somehow the Times is more able. As leaks develop in a secret story about a government cover up in the veracity of the Vietnam War, the Post finally gets a break as the Nixon Administration takes the Times to court and shuts down reporting. A mysterious woman drops off copies of pages of the Pentagon Papers on a Post reporter's desk, and a race against time ensues to publish without suffering wrath of the White House. Meanwhile, Graham is trying to take the Post public on the stock exchange with investors tempted to pull out and financial advisers telling her the paper's finances need the cash infusion.

Also at stake for Graham are personal relationships with people in the Nixon Administration at risk, like Defense Secretary Robert McNamara (played by Bruce Greenwood). And there is Daniel Ellsberg (played by Matthew Rhys), a Defense Department staffer who faces espionage charges for leaking the documents. It's high stakes risks for everyone involved, included Graham and Bradlee, who could go to jail.

Streep and Hanks at the acting helm brings huge star power to this film. High stakes for the characters brings huge drama. As historical fiction, you can't offer greater conflict in a story than Washington power brokers going after each other in a battle over first-amendment rights versus military-industrial interests. Yet somehow something seems amiss in this film. It feels like a viewer setup, even knowing this story from having lived during the times. This is a Steven Spielberg film, which would normally be a set up for quality. But there are subtle hiccups. And I think it may be shot setups, the way the lines are so casually delivered with obvious acting versus the usual natural deliveries by Hanks and Streep. And here is my sneeking suspicion: I watched it on Blu-Ray, which brings a visual clarity to movies that lets you see all the ugly warts of production. I miss the graininess of a good film. Watching a digital "film" is like watching the "filming" live and so, watching a live performance. There's no romancing of the audience with the beauty of the celluloid. And Blu-Ray enhances that clarity. It actually spoils the movie for me. I don't want to see the action live. I want to see the story through the artificiality of the lens and actual film. And this, I posit, is what spoils The Post.

The Post is a good story. The narrative arc holds together. The dramatic story (the script) holds together. The history holds together. Maybe it's the forced acting that just doesn't hold together -- maybe they tried too hard. But for me, seeing it on Blu-Ray really spoiled it for me. If you see The Post, at least see it on regular DVD. And focus on the history that was made within the story. Because that was the story.

The Circle: Solid on Story Line and Character Development

Movie Review: The Circle (2017)
Version: Library borrow

There was something creepy about The Circle. Not in a horror-movie way. Not in a sexual-assault way. But in an invasion-of-your-privacy way. And that's what this film is about, really, advanced technology's potential to invade your privacy in the most personal and devastating ways. For that reason alone, it's worth seeing, to explore what you may not imagine your giving technology access to while you're visiting Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and Snapshot and all of those other "entertaining" programs on the Internet.

What enhances the creep factor is having usually affable, lovable Tom Hanks play the bad guy. He's not a violent bad guy. He's not a seductive bad guy. But he is a manipulator and someone who takes advantage of the weak and innocent. And when you are used to seeing him play good guys most of the time, seeing him play this kind of role rips your heart out. He plays the CEO of The Circle, the tech and social media company that just wants to connect the world for the betterment of human kind.

Playing opposite him is Emma Watson, who is the weak, innocent young woman who doesn't seem to have the strength or the will or the sophistication to resist Hank's charm or manipulations. She just goes along to get along. And Watson is so appealing as an actor that you can't help but feel for her as she keeps digging herself deeper into a hole as she advances in the company.

The basic story is that as Mae, one-time customer service rep for the city water department, she gets the job of a lifetime at The Circle. She starts out as a customer relations agent. But Hank's character, Bailey, and his COO Stenton (played by Patton Oswalt), see potential in her, and they give her an exciting new assignment. Now, The Circle is a social media program available all over the world, and its thing is connecting people and promoting openness and transparency. So this new assignment is to wear a camera and expose herself to cameras that The Circle has posted everywhere, to follow her every move, everywhere. She becomes an overnight success, people all over the world following her and loving her. But there are complications as the world taps into her relationships with others in her life, bringing unintended consequences, some of them devastating. In the background is a reclusive employee (Ty, played by John Boyega), who shows Mae the inner workings of The Circle and its dangerous potential. Their only solution is to challenge The Circle.

The look and feel of The Circle is today's Google or Facebook, but bigger and badder. The company's campus is amazing, full of fun places to work, exciting activities, inviting parties, and constant interaction between employees and frequent innovation. But hidden beneath the surface is a desire to control the world for profit.

If you spend a lot of time on social media, this movie will make you think twice about how and how much you share your personal information. That's really how The Circle might creep you out. That can be a good thing. But remember, it's just a movie. And it's a good one, well acted and well scripted. The futuristic graphics are solid and the limited special effects are great.

This was the last film for Bill Paxton, who plays Mae's father, who suffers from Multiple Sclerosis in the story. Paxton died early this year from complications of a surgical procedure for an aneurysm. He gave a fine final performance.

The Circle isn't an amazing film, but it is a good one, solid on story line and character development.

Sully: Well Told Story of the "Miracle on the Hudson" Emergency Landing

Movie Review: Sully (2016)
Version: Library borrow

You may remember the "Miracle on the Hudson" landing of a passenger plane on the frigid Hudson River in New York City in January 2009. Captain Chelsey "Sully" Sullenberger became an instant hero for saving the lives of all 155 aboard his flight when the plane was disabled by a bird strike that took out both engines and required an emergency landing. That's the story depicted in great detail in the film Sully.

While the film shows as the dramatic events unfold in the flight, the real conflict is between Sully, played with excellence by Tom Hanks, co-pilot Jeff Skiles (played by Aaron Eckhart), and the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) members, played by Jamey Sheridan, Mike O'Malley, and Anna Gunn. The NTSB was just doing its job investigating what happened in ditching a perfect good commercial aircraft into the Hudson River instead of returning to any of a few nearby airports, the investigation turns personal when the Board questions Sully's judgment and 30-some years of flight experience in making the decision. But it turns out not everything is as it seems in the investigation, and Sully and Skiles must defend their assumptions, their decisions, and their actions.

Laura Linney plays Sully's wife, following the drama on her own at home. She always seems to play a downer part, and in Sully it's no different.

Tom Hanks is humanly likable as Sully, a non-assuming professional pilot just doing his job to protect his passengers and crew. Eckhart is smart as the capable and loyal co-pilot, who doesn't for a second doubt decisions reached in the cockpit, despite the computer simulations and pilot simulated runs. And Sheridan and O'Malley are masterfully plotting as the Board members eager to show Sully and Skiles weren't heroes but endangered the crew and passengers and needlessly destroyed a multi-million-dollar piece of equipment. The acting is good and the script is well written to produce a fine drama that tells a wonderfully human drama.

The movie includes impressive film sequences of the bird strikes, the plane approach around skyscraper-infested New York City, and that final breathtaking landing into the Hudson River, not to mention the amazing escape from the plane and rescue by NYC ferries and police. You can't help but be moved by all that Sully and Skiles faced to bring all aboard that flight out of danger safely.

This is definitely a film everyone in the family can watch. Heroes aren't born easily, and Sully is a fine example of what one man, one team, went through to make the grade.

A Hologram for the King: A Satisfying Movie Worth Watching at Least Once

Movie Review: A Hologram for the King (2016)
Version: Library Borrow

Tom Hanks is always fun to watch, almost always a friendly face on the movie screen. It is equally so in A Hologram for the King, where he once again plays an underdog, one more than equal to the challenge.

Hanks plays Alan, a former powerful CEO who once sent jobs from Schwinn Bikes to China and now finds himself in a much reduced role at a different company as a simple salesman going to Saudi Arabia to sell American IT services to a powerful king. What he runs into are jet lag, cultural missteps, systemic roadblocks, and a health scare all that threaten to foil his efforts, but in the process introduces him to new friends and an unexpected love interest.

Alexander Black is smart as Yousef, a driver for hire who helps Alan over his many cultural and physical setbacks. Satira Choudury is brilliant as Zahra, a woman doctor who treats Alan's health malady; despite cultural taboos about unsupervised men and women sharing such intimate space, they become very close.

In a way, A Hologram for the King reminds me a lot of Lost in Translation, with Bill Murray in the leading role. In this instance, it's Tom Hanks lost in an Arabic and Islamic world trying to translate a world of language, religious, cultural, and feminine cues in the search for the big business score. Like Bill Murray, Hanks is all charm and character but succumbs to his human instincts in ways that both seem to bring relief to his frustrations yet also force him to the brink of failure. Hanks handles it with a familiar patina of humor and grace.

The script isn't as interesting as the visuals, with their  sweeping desert panoramas, seascapes, and busy cityscapes. What do words matter anyway, right? It's the situations and Hank's reactions that make this film. All come together to create a satisfying movie worth watching at least once.

I don't have a rating system as many review sites do, but if I did, I would give A Hologram for the King a solid 4. Honestly, I can't think of a bad Tom Hanks film, and this definitely wouldn't be one of them.