There are movies that make you cry, and there are some that make you feel good. ‘ A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood’ made me feel a lot of things – it made me miss my father, it made me want to show kindness and be a better person. Last year one of my favorite movies was ‘Can You Ever Forgive Me,’ because it touched me immensely, and Marielle Heller, who directed both that and this film, has done it again. (She is now one of my favorite modern filmmakers) The emotions in ‘A Beautiful…’ are expressed subtly, but their effects will blunt you.
Like probably everyone else, I thought this was a Mr. Rogers biopic. But of course, why do we need that when we already have last year’s documentary ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor? This film is based on Tom Junod’s write up on Esquire Magazine, where he was ‘forced’ to feature Mr. Rogers, and how that experience enlightened his life. Well, ‘enlightened’ is probably a weak way of putting it. Mr. Rogers changed his life. In the film, the character’s name has been changed to Lloyd Vogel, and the experience made him a lot less broken. I thought Matthew Rhys was fantastic here – it’s a quiet but resonant performance, one of those wherein by the end of the film, you see an arc of what the character has gone through. And of course, the heart and soul of the piece is Tom Hank’s performance. He becomes Mr. Rogers before our eyes, with kindness and heart emanating from his pore from the very minute he shows up on screen. I think at this point, like Streep, Hanks has become a living legend, and his performance here is master class in fine acting.
We are all broken in some ways – no one emerges anywhere intact and untouched. But it is these imperfections that give us texture. This film celebrates all that, and finds ways for us to mend all that’s broken. After seeing the film, I got a incandescent sense of tristesse, thinking of all the ways my parents made me the person I am today. I am happy with how I turned out, because I have no other choice but to be.
For all you young ones, ‘The Post’ is not about Facebook or Instagram. Rather, it is Steven Spielberg’s new film about freedom of the press, and in this day and time, it really is a message that resonates. Apparently, Spielberg rushed this in time for Oscar bait season, if only to reiterate that this as relevant today as it was in 1971 when the movie is set.
‘Sully’ was released around the time of my birthday but I was in the middle of a trip then and didn’t want to watch it, afraid I will visualize the crash scenes from the movie while traveling. But months later, with no impending flights booked in the horizon, and finally I feel like I can see this movie. And I need not have worried – those scenes weren’t really scary. I mean, they were suspenseful and thrilling, but the imagery is not something one will remember and be petrified about. And, I should not have waited, too, because ‘Sully’ is a solid film, a no-nonsense crafty film from Clint Eastwood. Moreover, it has a solid Tom hanks performance, unshowy and dignified, and he gets to the heart of Captain Chesley Sullenberger’s soul with a performance that never seems gimmicky. I should hope that this gives him another Academy Award nomination.
Has Tom Hanks ever given a bad performance? He proves he is a living acting legend in ‘A Hologram For The King’ proving that a great performance can elevate a lesser film into something greater. Hanks here plays an American businessman trying to sell IT business to a planned city in Saudi Arabia. He has a lot of internal turmoil – a messy divorce, financial issues that hinder him from sending his daughter to college, an irate boss who is pressuring him to cinch this account. Hanks manages to balance both the comedy and dramatic tones here, and even if the character’s back story makes him a bit unlikable, Hanks manages to reel you in his corner.
Luha Thoughts 