A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: We Were All Children Once

Prior to watching A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, I had seen the trailer about twenty times in the movie theater. Usually, I don't pay attention to trailers I've seen before, or I get annoyed about having to watch one for the umpteenth time. But every time the trailer for this movie came on, I would perk right up, and without fail, it would make me a little teary-eyed and wistful. When Mr. Rogers would talk about dealing with your feelings by playing all the lowest notes of a piano at once and go "Bong!" while the music swelled to a crescendo, my heart would soar. It never got old. Therefore, I couldn't wait to see this movie. And while it wasn't exactly what I had expected, I still came away from it feeling like there will never be anyone in the world quite like Mr. Rogers.

Tom Hanks plays Fred Rogers, the children's television show host whose sole aim in life was to teach children how to handle the world around them and process their feelings in healthy ways. He was a brilliant man (you can watch the marvelous documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? to see him in action) and Tom Hanks' portrayal certainly does him justice. Hanks disappears into the role, capturing Mr. Rogers' slow cadence and very deliberate, methodical way of speaking, always carefully choosing his words and simply overflowing with compassion for his fellow humans and enthusiasm for the everyday wonders of the world. However, this movie focuses less on the Mr. Rogers we're used to, the one who dealt with children. Instead, writers Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster have adapted a 1998 Esquire article by Tom Junod who did a celebrity profile of Fred Rogers entitled, "Can You Say...Hero?" As such, the movie focuses more on the character of Lloyd Vogel (played by the excellent Matthew Rhys), the journalist who has been forced to write a "puff piece" on Fred Rogers and thinks this is all a waste of his time. Of course, it is not.

I wasn't sure how I felt about the movie taking this tangent - the trailer was far more centered on Mr. Rogers, while the movie spends a lot more time on Lloyd and the family drama that has led him to be a somewhat bitter and cynical soul. But it eventually won me over. With Marielle Heller's deft direction, we see how Mr. Rogers' gentle but wise teachings were not just something for children to learn but applied universally to us all. It's so easy to watch an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and dismiss the puppets and cardigans and assorted pageantry as being "kids stuff." But there is nothing childish about the underlying kindness and profound psychological wisdom that is earnestly being dispensed. At one point in the film, Mr. Rogers talks about death; he says that people don't like to talk about it, but "anything mentionable is manageable." It's a valuable reminder that you cannot manage your feelings until you talk about them. But he was also a man who took pleasure in silence and like the documentary, this movie features his common request for people to take a minute of silence "to think about all the people who loved you into being." The movie goes completely silent during this minute, and you would have to have a heart of stone to not immediately start thinking of those people in your life and tear up. 

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is a wonderful movie about a wonderful man. Most importantly, it also humanizes Fred Rogers a bit more than the documentary did - there's a brief exchange where Lloyd is talking to Joanne, Mr. Rogers' wife, and she quickly disabuses him of the notion that her husband is a saint. She talks about how hard he works to keep his emotions in check and that he is a human being just like anyone else. There's also an exchange between Mr. Rogers and Lloyd where he admits that he has had difficulties raising his two sons, who often didn't want to acknowledge that their father was Mr. Rogers. The final scenes of the movie feature an evocative moment to remind us that while he certainly was one of the best the human race had to offer, it wasn't something that came to him effortlessly. All of the tips and tricks he tried to share with the rest of us were things he used himself. I left this movie still thinking Mr. Rogers was one of the greatest men who ever lived, but I also left it thinking that maybe, if I play all the lowest notes on the piano, I too can learn how to be a good neighbor. 

Knives Out: A Perfect Mystery

Knives Out is the ideal Thanksgiving movie. The family of a famous crime novelist gets together for dinner, the patriarch dies in an apparent suicide but now the police suspect murder, and everyone is gathered back together in an Agatha Christie-esque black comedy to solve the mystery. It is simply sublime.

Written and directed by the astonishing Rian Johnson, this movie is a wonder. It is a twisty and intricately-plotted murder mystery that could easily be written up as a cozy and compelling novel. You are fed all the clues throughout the movie and have just as good a chance of solving the mystery as the private detective who has been anonymously hired to solve the case. But you will be having so much fun watching Daniel Craig swan around doing his best Foghorn Leghorn impression that you’ll be happy to leave the detecting up to him.

Aside from Craig, who plays the fabulously named Benoit Blanc, this movie boasts an all-star cast including Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Don Johnson, Chris Evans, Lakeith Stanfield, Christopher Plummer, Michael Shannon, and the marvelous Ana de Armas, who plays the dead man’s kindhearted nurse (she is from Paraguay, Uruguay, or Brazil, depending on which clueless member of the family you speak to) and has to deal with the shenanigans of this insane family while harboring secrets of her own about what happened that night. Each character is weird and wacky in a very specific way; everyone has a motive, everyone is hiding something, and the plot keep twisting in on itself like some impossible Möbius strip until Blanc finally brings everyone together in a room and solves the mystery in a manner that would make Hercule Poirot proud.

Knives Out is a cinematic tour de force. The production design of the creepy house where the death takes place is impressive, with every corner stuffed with something eye-catching that contains a potential clue. The cast is clearly having the time of their life, playing up heightened emotions and extreme melodrama as this family turns out to be spectacularly dysfunctional. And the script is a bewildering beauty, crammed with jokes but also containing a deeply satisfying murder mystery that will keep you guessing until the final second. It reminded me of Clue, except it takes its central mystery very seriously and unravels it with aplomb. This is a movie that bears repeat viewing - even once you have the answers, you can re-watch to find all the clues you missed the first time around, giggle at all the jokes, and luxuriate in the warm glow of a movie that is absolutely perfect in every way. 

21 Bridges: Tense & Thrilling

Every year, a movie comes out that makes me particularly thrilled about living in New York. This year, that movie is 21 Bridges. The title is in reference to the 21 bridges around Manhattan (at one point this movie was called 17 Bridges, until someone went on Google Maps and found four more bridges - yeah I don't understand either), and the entire movie takes place over the course of one night when the NYPD is out hunting a pair of cop killers. It is tense, bloody, and riveting.

Chadwick Boseman plays Andre Davis, an NYPD detective with a personal vendetta. His father was a cop who was killed in the line of duty when Andre was thirteen, so he has become somewhat notorious for finding cop killers and bringing them to justice by any means necessary. When eight cops are killed at midnight by two robbers during a bungled cocaine heist in Brooklyn, Andre is dispatched to the scene of the crime and comes up with the audacious plan to shut down Manhattan for five hours. That's where the shooters are, and he's gonna get them before they can escape the island.

What follows is an elaborate game of cat-and-mouse where we get to watch Andre and Frankie Burns, the narcotics officer assigned to be his partner in this chase (played by the wonderful Sienna Miller), hunt down the two criminals as they try to sell their drugs and come up with an exit strategy. By the way, those two criminals are played by Stephan James and Taylor Kitsch, who are both excellent. James, in particular, is doing wonderful work as a man who has gotten in way over his head and is desperate to escape the tangled web of deceit that this robbery has uncovered. When he and Boseman are on screen together, there are so many layers to unpack and it's a powerful acting showcase.

The screenplay by Adam Mervis and Matthew Michael Carnahan is twisty and fun. There is nothing straightforward about this case and there are complications and red herrings that build up as Andre pursues his prey. Under Brian Kirk's direction, we get a fast-paced action thriller that is endlessly entertaining and feels like a throwback to when action movies could be fun escapism. I mean sure, there are a load of lessons you could take away about corruption, racism, the tenuous relationship between the NYPD and the citizens of New York. Or you could choose to ignore all that and happily stare at all the beautiful shots of New York at night or in the early dawn.

21 Bridges is a standard cop thriller elevated by dynamic performances from a great cast, a delicious script, and confident, no-nonsense direction. It is efficient, wrapping up in less than two hours, even though the elaborate plot makes you feel like you've watched a whole miniseries. It is exciting and compelling, a perfect way to enliven a boring weekend and remember how much fun it can be to go to the movies. 

Charlie’s Angels: Throw Your Hands up at Me

Charlie’s Angels is delightful. I don’t care what reviews you’ve seen or what nonsense you’ve heard from the masses. It is a movie about three ladies who get into car chases and high-stakes action sequences where they take down bad guys with flair and I. AM. HERE. FOR. THIS.

Written, directed, and produced by Elizabeth Banks, who also plays a meaty supporting role as Bosley, the Angels’ handler (as if she didn't have enough to do already), the movie is a fun thrill ride. Is the plot really important? Nope. The Angels have to chase down some people who have stolen a weapon that could assassinate people anywhere in the world and cause utter chaos. You know, the usual. What is important are the women playing the Angels this time around. We’ve got Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska, all of whom have interesting back stories, wildly different skill sets, but the same level of badassery that makes it so much fun to cheer for them for two hours straight.

The showing I went to had a row of preteen girls who were all excited to see it. Granted they were super annoying and seemed to be engaged in all manner of offscreen drama about who was friends with whom and how the seating arrangements should be constantly shuffled, but putting that aside, I was so glad that this movie existed for them. I was thirteen when the 2000 film starring Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu, and Drew Barrymore came out, and I remember going to the theater to see it with my girlfriends and loving it so much. We also sang Destiny's Child's "Independent Women" that was on the movie soundtrack for about a year. Nineteen years later, I saw this reboot with one of my best friends from college and we had just as much fun. And this time around a woman directed the movie - progress!

This movie is fun. That’s what it genuinely aspires to be. It is a bunch of women in wonderfully choreographed fight scenes having a bonkers good time and you would have to be a complete Scrooge to object to any of it. It’s not some philosophical feminist treatise, it’s Charlie’s Angels. But it is unapologetically feminine and fabulous, and we could always use more movies like this. Every generation of teenage girls needs an action movie that speaks to their power; and so do I. Keep 'em coming ladies.

Ford v Ferrari: Start Your Engines

I saw Ford v Ferrari with two friends who both complained it was too long. I, on the other hand, wasn’t bored for a second. Maybe it’s because I grew up on interminable Bollywood films, or maybe it’s because I really needed a movie that scratched the itch left from my days watching Top Gear, but you can firmly put me down as a fan of this fabulous movie.

Based on a true story, the film follows car designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and his racing driver partner Ken Miles (Christian Bale). In 1963, they were tasked by Henry Ford II (the original Ford’s grandson) to design a race car that would beat Enzo Ferrari’s entry at the grueling 24-hour Le Mans race in France. Shelby was the only American driver to have won that race (in 1959), but having stepped down from racing due to a heart condition, Miles was his choice as the only man who could replicate his success. The two men had a deep love and understanding for cars and racing and the movie glories in the details of how they go about taking a Ford, known for being ugly but dependable, and turning it into something that could beat the sleek handmade Ferraris that had won Le Mans for five years in a row.

There is a great deal of friction caused by corporate bureaucracy, with the two pioneers butting heads with Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas, who plays the greatest asshole you’ve ever seen), a Ford vice president who is in charge of the racing division but cares more about marketing than cars. While they have the support of Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal), there are plenty of machinations required to placate Beebe and Ford and those continue to dog them until their final victory lap. This is also a story about the great friendship between Shelby and Miles, a Texan and a Brit who completely understood each other and had each others' backs during a stressful but exhilarating period in their lives. It's a bromance for the ages. And let's be real, these men are pretty easy on the eyes too.

Ford v Ferrari is a self-assured and sizzling movie. The racing scenes have you on the edge of your seat, and off the racetrack, the interpersonal dynamics and marvelous performances from Bale and Damon will keep you chuckling and rooting for our heroes till the bitter end. It’s a great story to tell, with a cast that is more than well-equipped to tell it, and in the hands of director James Mangold, it leaps off the screen and stays compelling for two and a half hours. Do you like racing? Do you like snappy dialogue? Do you like a tale of underdogs trying to stick it to the man? Then what more do you need - watch this movie!

The Good Place: How to Be Human

I love The Good Place. From the moment Episode 1 aired to now, when it's six episodes into its fourth and final season, this is a show that provides a weekly dose of epiphany and humor. I was so busy enjoying it that I completely forgot to blog about it, but the events of this week have led me to rectify that grievous error.

Come to think of it, this might be why I haven't written about the show before: I can't fully tell you what it's about. In Episode 1, you are introduced to Eleanor Shellstrop (the ever-charming Kristen Bell), a woman who died on Earth and has just woken up in the "Good Place," where she is greeted by Michael (the even-more-charming Ted Danson). Michael is the "architect" of the particular neighborhood of the Good Place she has been assigned to; think of him as a low-level angel. He shows her around, introduces her to other residents, including the silent monk, Jianyu (Manny Jacinto), British socialite, Tahani (Jameela Jamil), and the ethics professor, Chidi (William Jackson Harper), who is supposed to be her soulmate in the afterlife. There's also Janet (D'Arcy Carden), an artificial being who knows the answers to everything and can provide residents with anything they want at a moment's notice. It's all very uplifting and grand. But things start going wrong and Michael seems perplexed by how his carefully constructed neighborhood is falling to pieces. At the end of the episode, Eleanor runs to Chidi and confesses - she has been mistaken for another woman named Eleanor Shellstrop, who was a truly good and decent citizen and deserved to be here, unlike her, an "Arizona trashbag" who lived her life as a largely amoral and insensitive woman. She thinks her presence has resulted in all the chaos in the Good Place, and she needs to fix it so she doesn't get sent to the Bad Place.

That was just a description of the first episode. Every following episode ends with similar cliffhangers and twisty revelations, and by the end of the first season, the show ended on such a bombshell that it returned in a completely rebooted second season. This trend has continued each year - there is always something so drastic that happens in the season finale that you might as well be watching a brand new show next year. But the one constant is that this is a show that is deeply invested in the question of what it means to be good. How can human beings do the right thing? What, in fact, IS the right thing? How should we all be treating each other to ensure we can all get into the Good Place?

I listen to the Good Place podcast every week - if you are just starting to watch, I highly recommend bingeing the podcast alongside the show because it will so deepen your appreciation for the thought and artistry that goes into every sentence and every prop. In the words of the podcast's host, Marc Evan Jackson (who plays the demon Shaun on the show), "This is the smartest dumbest show on television." It is concerned with high-concept philosophical quandaries, but unafraid to also throw in low-brow fart jokes as the situation demands. It is impossibly funny, and impossibly thought-provoking at the same time. Creator Mike Schur (who also gave us Parks & Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine) is responsible for all this creative goodness, and the writers room on this show is overflowing with genuinely hilarious and thoughtful people who can craft the perfect pun alongside the most tangled ethical dilemma. This is a show that also employs philosophers as consultants - one of them is Dr. Todd May, and I ended up reading his book, A Decent Life: Morality for the Rest of Us, a few months ago. How many TV shows lead you to read books on moral philosophy? And have a companion podcast that ends with the host telling listeners to "go do something good?" It's all absurd and wonderful.

This week, I faced a terrible situation at work where I inadvertently upset someone who then demanded an apology. I stewed over this all night, angry and mortified, unclear on how to proceed. But the morning after, I watched the latest episode of The Good Place, "A Chip Driver Mystery," which bizarrely featured a storyline where a person was being made to apologize for something and was being a total douche about it. At the end of the episode, Michael made the following observation: "What matters isn't if people are good or bad. What matters is if they're trying to be better today than they were yesterday.". Upon hearing that, all my cares melted away. I went to the office, made all my apologies, and had a (somewhat) clear conscience.

It's a lesson we need to tell ourselves all the time. Human beings are messy and complicated creatures. We do a LOT of stupid things. But we have to try. As long as we are trying to be better than we were yesterday, we have a shot at making this a better and happier world for everyone. Meanwhile, The Good Place, a magical half-hour sitcom, is out there, trying to make us all better human beings. If you haven't watched it yet, do yourself a favor. Watch it. And then go do something good.