A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

Don't ruin my childhood, what most people would be asking the director not to do when going to see a movie about Mr. Rogers. But as it turns out, a movie with big shoes to fill manages to catch the nostalgia of those watching and not harm the legacy. Mr. Rogers doesn't even turn out to be the main character in the film. It turns from the biographical film one would expect to a character study of a writer dealing with personal issues who is doing a piece on Rogers. Tom Hanks perfectly encapsulates the characteristics and mannerisms of Fred Rogers, making it sometimes hard to remember they are not the same person, While it is Hanks' first academy award nomination in 20 years, it is most deserved for his bringing Rogers back to life. A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood plays out almost like an hour and a half episode of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, even beginning with Rogers' traditional 'Hello Neighbor' and then talking about our writer Lloyd Vogel and how he is hurting, on the inside and out. The film then progresses through a snapshot of Vogel's life as he deals with his issues with this father and how he turns from a cynic to an idealist. He must come to terms with his father and the issues of being his own child's parent. All with the help of seeing the true optimism and genuineness of Fred Rogers and his show. If there was one complaint for the film it would be that Andrea Vogel, Lloyd's wife, is incredibly unsupportive of his grievances towards his father. I understand that it was necessary to push the character forward but the things that were done to him as a child seemed deeper than what his wife was showing.

That would be the one and only issue as Tom Hanks just steals the scene whenever he is on screen and mesmerizes with his ability to conduct the spirit of Mr. Rogers into the audience. It is easily an A film with only a little room to grow for that A+.

Ad Astra

 Slow burns are sometimes produce the best food for thought. Brad Pitt solidifies his position in acting as one of  the best in the business. He should be nominated for an Academy Award for this film and not Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.  Ad Astra takes aim at the common feeling of being left behind by both loved ones and life. Pitt plays Roy McBride, an astronaut who followed in his father's giant footsteps ind order to make sense of the of the world. He shuts himself down both emotionally and physically, he is divorced and his resting heart rate never goes above 80, even in life or death situations. McBride is tasked with finding his father (Tommy Lee Jones), who left on the Lima project to find intelligent life outside our known galaxy. On the trip McBride must come to grips with the fact that his father left him when he was 8 years old and he may not like what he finds on the Lima station. It is a journey of self discovery, reminiscent of 2001: Space Odyssey with challenges arising throughout that you would expect to have show up later but in a satisfying way, they don't. Donald Sutherland makes a satisfying cameo as a person from McBride Sr. past to aid Roy on his journey. More of this calm, reserved, sparse Sutherland please. Ad Astra looks at how barriers we put up in life to survive actually might be suffocating the very life out of us, begging the question, are you truly still living?Some will find this film boring and pretentious but that is what is often said of out past space epics. Think of Interstellar, Gravity and 2001: Space Odyssey. Ad Astra definitely needs to be considered in with these epics for truly analyzing the human experience by reaching for the stars. 

An easy grade of an A for this fantastic film. The ending really can hit you hard.

Joker

Joaquin Phoenix brings out a very dark, very powerful portrayal of Arthur Fleck aka Joker and the film itself holds up an ugly mirror to the world reflecting its inexplicable treatment of mental health and marginalized society. Fleck is trying to make it as a stand up comedian but can only get jobs as a call for hire clown. Even in the close quarters of his fellow misfit clowns, Arthur is an outsider. he talks to himself, has a condition where he laughs uncontrollably at random and goes home to his frail mother whom he is the sole provider. We get a deep look at the Gotham before Batman and see how things could have gotten so bad. This is only a possible case as our narrator for the film is Moody, who is a self described moody schizophrenic, which makes him unreliable at best and outright wrong at worst. Robert DeNiro enters the scene as Murray Franklin, a talk show host who Arthur Idolizes with this mother. We are continuously shown clips of the show and Arthur slowly has his perfect image of Franklin shattered. It is amazing what kind of sympathy that Todd Phillips is able to muster from the audience for a character that we already know will become deplorable with his actions. Phillips goes after many marginalized groups in the mentally ill, the poor, the taken advantage of, the children taking care of the parent. The audience can even feel sympathy for those treating Arthur poorly. In one scene in particular, Arthur is attempting to entertain a child on a city bus. His mother sees this and immediately overreacts telling him to leave her child alone. Based on everything surrounding the altercation one can feel sympathy for the mother with the utter filth depravity we see in Gotham, one would be suspect to a random older man making faces at their child. We only know it is an overreaction because we have seen what Arthur is truly like.

While I think that the argument that Joker glorifies violence and is a dangerous film for society is over blown, I do think it is a necessary conversation to have. Unlike the John Wick films which are also Ultra violent, Joker's main protagonist is not hero and never will be. To think that these two films are in the same wheel house is absurd. Joker builds off of all the pent up anger and rage that we feel today towards the ultra rich and gives it an outlet in Thomas Wayne. The film almost feels like what would have happened if Occupy Wall street had gone horrifically wrong. John Wick asks what would happen if a good guy hitman decided to burn down a hidden assassin order. Joker should be analyzed for its portrayal of society and the question it asks of does society create it's own monsters. John Wick should be enjoyed for fun and pure amusement.

Joker easily earns an B+ for its view of society and how we need to reexamine our current situation.

Ford V Ferrari

Christian Bale puts in another Oscar worthy performance in a year of the snub. While there are far more compelling snubs such as Eddie Murphy, Awkwafina and even Adam Sandler, Christian Bale is Certainly more deserving of an academy award this year than Leonardo Decaprio, Brad Pit, Al Pacino and the list goes on. Had he been passed over for the likes of Eddie Murphy in Dolomite is My Name, I would say that there was a tough group of contenders. But with who was nominated, it is very obvious that the Academy picked a few movies that they wanted to focus on and to heck with the rest. Matt Damon even gives phenomenal performance that in another year would net him at minimum a nomination. The small consolation for Bale, unlike for Murphy or Awkwafina, is that Ford V Ferrari was able to snag a nomination for Best Picture and the category they deserve to win, Sound Editing.

Ford V Ferrari manages to get the audience to care about a battle between 2 millionaires while keeping our main characters out of the scummy world of the supper rich. We follow Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) as he is tasked with building a race car for Ford that will beat Ferrari at the famed Le Mans. Shelby Recruits a down on his luck, old racer in Ken Miles (Christian Bale) and has to fight the bureaucracy of the upper workings of Ford. Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas) plays the foil to Shelby and Miles as he constantly is trying to undermine their success and take it for his own. Miles is the character that the audience can most identify with by being the everyday man who is constantly held down by the man and is only trying to do what he loves, being the best racer in the world. Miles must decide on the journey if he is going to remain the lone wolf, doing it as he sees fit or join the team of the company that is trying to stab him in the back. 

One interesting aspect of the film is that we are first introduced to Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) were are made to believe that he is a typical uncaring CEO of a big company. Then there are a number of scenes that seem to humanize him, only for a scene five minutes later that undoes all of the humanization before it. It almost seams that the film only could move the story along by making him seem human and they then had to immediately remove those feelings from the audience. If only with a little better writing they could have kept him aloof and kept the story flowing.

Due to the performances of Bale and Damon, Ford V. Ferrari easily earns a A rating, even with the clunky empathy for Ford.