A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.

Depends on its box office. It's got the heft of a crowdpleaser, but I'd be more confident in it if it made solid bank. As for Hanks, I just think the Academy's taken him for granted for so long that I'm at the point where I won't predict him until he does get in. But he deserves it over one of the presumed frontrunners in the category already.

Pitt.

It's Hanks's best work in years. He doesn't just nail the imitation; he embodies the philosophy of unconditional kindness exceptionally well. He acts a respectable Rhys right off the screen, though the screenplay is essentially written for him to do so.

Apart from that, it's familial yet comforting. An ideal movie to rewatch on a shitty day.

Hanks is great here and unlike some of his other surprise non-nods in recent years actually deserves one. The movie itself is alright and kind of loses steam in the middle when it focuses more on the writer and not Mr. Rogers. Still a good movie just because Hanks's performance is impressive enough, it's one of those movies where it's a vehicle for the lead.



When the writer would whine about how everything sucked I thought that that's exactly how I feel about the world now and I wish I could have a conversation with Fred Rogers to cheer me up.



I wish they'd have just ended it when the episode ends and not done the backstage stuff at the end. Would have been perfect to open with the show opening and end it with him just leaving the set. 



One of the impressive things about Hanks is that he's managed to make me forget who he was during movies more often than any mega-star at his level that I can think of. 

This was really lovely. It's such a soft, quiet, low-key film, one that literally has a scene that's deliberately a full minute of silence, and that unique tone it strikes plays beautifully true to the real man that it's paying tribute to. There's not much to say about Tom Hanks than what's already been said -- there's no one else who could've played this role, and hell, there really wouldn't be a role without him to fill it out. You need an actor this perfect for the role to be Fred Rogers, and he fulfills it effortlessly. It's not only an accurate representation of the man, but he manages to do it without it seeming like a cheap imitation; Hanks isn't intent on being convincing to the point that the role is calculated, and in the end it's not "transformative" to the point that Hanks *blends into the role* ... you still see Hanks at all times, but it's sort of perfect, because there's something very comforting about Hanks being there in much the same way that it's always comforting to have Mr. Rogers there. And it's not a showy performance at all, but one that is internalized, compassionate, and tremendously beautiful. 

Being a big fan of Matthew Rhys from his work on The Americans, which towers as one of the performances of the decade on TV or otherwise, it was really nice for me to see him finally get a leading film role, and he doesn't disappoint. It's a similarly subdued performance as Hanks, he doesn't really get any moments to chew up the screen but that's because that's not the type of movie it is, it's very toned-down, grounded, and plausible work that fits Heller's vision perfectly, even selling the more cheesy parts of the script. When Rhys and Hanks are on-screen together is when the film is at its best, their chemistry is undeniable and every beat of every conversation they have lands. (I also had no idea Chris Cooper was in this before seeing it, so, nice to see him still around!) The film is really able to land without overstating its message, and while there are a lot of standard and predictable elements to the script, there's also a fair amount of nuance to it that enhances the resonance of the film -- like everything else in the film, it's often very low-key, there's a lot that goes unsaid and it's often what's been unsaid that defines every conversation. And of course, the actors always sell it beautifully. Unfortunately, the film does start to feel a bit long by the end, the final thirty minutes or so could've been condensed and the dream sequences just felt out of place and didn't really work for me, either. Otherwise, it's a really fantastic film that testifies to the power of the connections we make, a story that's refreshingly optimistic and makes you feel like there's no emotional obstacle that can't be conquered. 

This isn't as good as Can You Ever Forgive Me?, but still, Marielle Heller has really proved herself as a head above the rest in adapting real-life stories. The way she's able to bring a larger-than-life figure like Fred Rogers so down-to-earth like she does here is really remarkable, and it's that sort of special touch that we need to see more of in biopics. 

Always been very skeptical about this. I never heard about Fred Rogers before when this movie with Hanks was announced and the premise didn't really interest me. But looking at your reviews this seems like a working feel-good-movie, that might be worth checking out.

A movie that's way more emotional than your usual biopic. Actually, I'd say "real-life based" is more accurate than biopic: the marvelous Marielle Heller is way more interested in exploring Mr. Rogers' philosophy of life applied to the real world than to show the life of the celebrated TV host.

ABDITN is a movie that captures very well the feel of Rogers' Neighbourhood (or at least how it's portrayed in Morgan Ville's beautiful doc), and embodies it - thus, giving the film an inventive, playful structure that works perfectly beyond the "shock" value. The way protagonist's (that's not Fred Rogers!) story is framed as a TV episode of the Neighbourhood allows Heller to experiment with more abstracts way of storytelling and emoting. She still blends it with traditional, well-made narrative, so the "trick" never gets old.

Rhys is very good in the main role, never feeling like a stereotype of a sad man. His performance balances Hanks' more enlightened Rogers (what a performance! Hanks had to go full-on Hanks to reach a new, refreshing peak), but both of them still feel grounded in the same universe.

Not really a Fred Rogers biopic. Not at all actually. More of a Lloyd Vogel biopic (Matthew Rhys' character). But it was a very nice and heartwarming little movie. I didn't know who Fred Rogers was before I heard about the film but now that I've seen it, I feel I know quite a few about him!!

Hanks really deserves to grab a nod! He's in his comfort zone here, portraying a real life person and especially such a nice and gentle person. But he nails it. My only complaint, he was supposed to be a 70 yo man (if I'm not mistaken) and he looked 15-20 years younger than that!!

Rhys was also very good and interacted pretty well with Hanks. Watson and Cooper did a solid job.

Certainly not one of year's best but very decent. 7.5/10

Of all the mainstream 2019 films I would've guessed might potentially steer into surreal territory while primarily being about the pain of repressed feelings, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood would not have been one of them.

This was really good!

Having really liked 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?' last year, I was let down by this a lot. As a non-American who didn't know who Fred Rogers was until very recently, I don't think the film has any international appeal or relevancy at all, because it relied to much on nostalgia or respect for the man rather than building an interesting story around him. I do hope people (non-Americans in this case) connect with it, even though I didn't. I'm not the biggest Hanks fan at all but I did think this was a really lovely performance, something he might do in his sleep for sure, but it's done extremely well and managed to feel sincere when it could've been cloying. If this marks his first return to the Oscars in decades, then it will be deserved. I loved Matthew Rhys in The Americans but I found his character too uninteresting to connect with and I thought the "father abandoned me" plot has been done too many times and was not effective here at all and that's basically the crutch of the film. I just never felt the conflict of the story felt organic, it felt like they were desperately trying to. The surreal scenes is something that should've worked for me on paper but they were too gimmicky to really hit a mark. The whole movie is just a little too saccharine and limp for me.
I admit I was sick when I watched it and want to give it a rewatch (along with Can You Ever Forgive Me, think that could be a great double bill) and I hope it will.

5.5-6/10

Yeah, I feel like if anything, the entire ethos of the movie is a rebuke of the overly saccharine image most of us have of Mr. Rogers.