Movie Review: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood **** / *****

Directed by: Marielle Heller.

Written by: Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster.

Starring: Matthew Rhys (Lloyd Vogel), Tom Hanks (Fred Rogers), Christine Lahti (Ellen), Wendy Makkena (Dorothy), Chris Cooper (Jerry Vogel), Enrico Colantoni (Bill Isler), Susan Kelechi Watson (Andrea Vogel), Tammy Blanchard (Lorraine), Maddie Corman (Lady Aberlin), Kevin L. Johnson (Darin Scharf), Maryann Plunkett (Joanne Rogers).

 

It undeniably would have been easier to make a typical biopic of Mr. Rogers – one that makes you feel good about yourself and the world as you leave the theater. Whether or not the release of the wonderful documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor last year either inspired this film, or changed the plans for this film, I think it undeniably helped it – almost anyone interested in this film, probably watched that one, so a lot of that background information is already out of the way. What that allows A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood to do is treat Mr. Rogers as a supporting character – and a strange one at that. He was undeniably a good person – and a force for good in the world. But the film also recognizes that he could be kind of creepy. There is something unnatural about him – his constant calm and good cheer, and during the course of the film, his kind of polite refusal to answer questions he doesn’t want – he simply glides over them like he doesn’t want to answer them. Mark Harris on Twitter said the film reminded him of The Silence of the Lambs – and as odd as that sounds, it’s also accurate. Don’t get me wrong, this is still a feel good movie – but it isn’t the cloying kind that you may expect it to be. It brings Mr. Rogers into the real world.

 

The main character in the film is Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) – an Esquire reporter circa 1998, who is assigned to write a blurb about Mr. Rogers for the “Hero” issue – even though he normally does hard hitting news, and sees this kind of puff piece as beneath him. Still, he does his job – and heads to Pittsburgh to interview Mr. Rogers. Vogel is a cynic – his mother died years ago, and he’s barely had any contact with his father (Chris Cooper) since – and for good reason. He does love his wife, Andrea (Susan Kelechi Watson) and newborn son though – and perhaps that makes him a little more open than he would normally be to Mr. Rogers. When he first meets him, and sees him film his show, he responds the way a cynic would – trying to figure out if Mr. Rogers is on the level or not. No one can be this kind, this patient, this caring – can he?

 

Tom Hanks was the perfect, perhaps only, choice to play Mr. Rogers. Hanks has done some of the most interesting work of his career in recent years – but this time, America’s Dad playing Mr. Rogers is quite simply great. But Hanks doesn’t settle for a mere impression, or even making Mr. Rogers just unbelievably nice and charming. There are times in the film where you will likely respond to Hanks’ Rogers much like Vogel does – with an exasperated sigh or an eye roll. Vogel is trying to get the person underneath the surface – and Rogers defiantly does not want to show that person. Still, Hanks does a good job of showing that yes, there is a person under there – that Mr. Rogers isn’t a saint, but a person – just one who, when with others, exercised complete control over himself. It’s is a fascinating and complex performance – and one of Hanks very best.

 

The film was directed by Marielle Heller, who has quickly become one of the most interesting directors working. This is the third time in a row – following The Diary of a Teenage Girl and Can You Ever Forgive Me – where she has taken tricky material, and found a unique spin on it. It is a very odd film in many ways – more akin to indie films. There are even a few moments where she seems to be making a film like Synecdoche, New York – which is the last thing you would expect in a film about Mr. Rogers.

 

In many ways, I have grown tired of biopics – Bohemian Rhapsody was the nadir of the genre last year, and it was so celebrated that it drove me nuts. What Heller and company do in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood though is entirely different – it’s not really a biopic at all, but something altogether stranger, more unique. And the result is wonderful.

Movie Review: Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Can You Ever Forgive Me? **** / *****

Directed by: Marielle Heller.

Written by: Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty.

Starring: Melissa McCarthy (Lee Israel), Richard E. Grant (Jack Hock), Dolly Wells (Anna), Ben Falcone (Alan Schmidt), Gregory Korostishevsky (Andre), Jane Curtin (Marjorie), Stephen Spinella (Paul), Christian Navarro (Kurt), Pun Bandhu (Agent Doyle), Erik LaRay Harvey (Agent Solonas), Brandon Scott Jones (Glen), Shae D'lyn (Nell), Rosal Colon (Rachel), Anna Deavere Smith (Elaine), Marc Evan Jackson (Lloyd).

 

The history of comedic actors taking on more serious roles and “surprising” people with how good they are in them is long. It’s how actors like Robin Williams won Oscars. I’ve always felt though that the best examples of this, are when the more serious roles have a little bit of that comedic personality that the actor has always shown – but sees it in a different light. The best example of this may well be Adam Sandler in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love, which was really the first time the true extent of the Sandler persona’s introversion, social awkwardness, and violent tendencies was explored.

 

There is some of that in Melissa McCarthy’s role in Marielle Heller’s Can You Ever Forgive Me? McCarthy was, of course, a talented working actor for a while before Bridesmaids made her a comedic superstar, with some great, more serious roles on her filmography (check her work in the underseen The Nines for example) – but since Bridesmaids, McCarthy has become known for her larger than life, in your face characters – prone to ranting and raving, and making a spectacle of herself. But for me, there has always been an undercurrent of insecurity to McCarthy’s work – her characters are often lonely. They are good at their jobs, but no one notices them. She rants and raves, and makes scenes, and they are often funny – but that’s because of the context they are presented.

 

Here, she is playing Lee Israel, a 51-year-old writer, living in New York circa 1991 – a biographer who disappears into her subjects, and as such doesn’t have much of a writer’s personality that people will recognize. When the film opens, she is working on a new book – but also as a copyeditor somewhere, working late at night, until she offends her boss and gets fired. She is a lesbian – but hasn’t had a relationship in a while. She doesn’t seem to have any friends either, and her agent (Jane Curtain) is tired of her. She is kind to her aging cat – who has gotten sick – and no one else really. She is facing eviction from her crummy apartment. Like many a McCarthy character, she can rant and rave and carry on – but it’s not so funny her. There is sadness there, as people just wish she would go away.

 

By accident, Lee stumbles into a new moneymaking venture. She discovers a type written note by Fanny Brice – her latest subject – and is able to sell it for a few bucks. She is told if the content is better, she could get even more money. So, she starts to study different writers – Noel Coward, Dorothy Parker, etc. – and reproduce letters by them to friends. Because she can now write whatever she wants, of course the content becomes juicier – and the paycheques get bigger. It’s only a matter of time before this will all come crashing down of course – but she doesn’t know that. She also makes her first real friend in a long time – Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant), who is as flamboyant and outgoing as Lee is introverted and private – although he has fallen on even tougher time. Perhaps they are just friends because no one would want to be, but theirs is a real friendship.

 

McCarthy is brilliant in the role of Israel – she doesn’t strive to make her sympathetic, which is precisely why she remains sympathetic, even as she does some fairly awful things. This is the quietest performance McCarthy has given in a while – but there is still that same kind of personality underneath that exterior. For his part, this is arguably the best work of Grant’s career – he is charming and funny, and outgoing, but there is a sadness to his character as well. He’s putting on a show as he always has – just fewer people are watching.

 

The film was directed by Marielle Heller – whose great debut, The Diary of a Teenage Girl, took place in the 1970s, and was about a teenage girl coming-of-age in terms of her art work, and her sexuality, in interesting ways. Here, I think she tops her debut – making a film that gives these characters an interesting world to inhabit – this is a gloomy New York of dive bars, dusty book store, and rundown apartments (and apparently, no sun) – and it works. Can You Ever Forgive Me is the type of film that gives an actress like McCarthy a chance to show the talent that was always there – hiding in plain sight.

Movie Review: The Diary of a Teenage Girl

The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Directed by: Marielle Heller.   
Written by: Marielle Heller based on the novel by Phoebe Gloeckner.
Starring: Bel Powley (Minnie), Kristen Wiig (Charlotte), Alexander Skarsgård (Monroe), Christopher Meloni (Pascal), Miranda Bailey (Andrea), Abby Wait (Gretel), Austin Lyon (Ricky Wasserman), Margarita Levieva (Tabatha).  

The Diary of a Teenage Girl is a film about 15-year old Minnie (an extraordinary Bel Powley) discovering her sexuality, and exploring it without shame. She likes sex, and ends up making what most people would consider mistakes in choosing her partners – all of whom exploit her in one way or another, even if she doesn’t quite see it like that. The movie actually does show her cut off a couple different sexual relationships when they start veering towards territory she doesn’t like, or feel comfortable with – and admitting that she has made some mistakes, but still she refuses to feel bad about them. Nor is she befallen with great tragedy or lasting consequences – this film isn’t a warning that sex will lead to nothing but STDs, pregnancy or some other dire consequences. It is a movie that will likely make many very uncomfortable – it doesn’t judge any of its characters for their actions, even if more than a few of them would be considered horrific by most.

Minnie, along with her younger sister Gretel, is being raised by Charlotte (Kristen Wiig), who has just got out of a long term marriage with Minnie’s step father Pascal (Christopher Meloni) and is apparently eager to make up for lost time. The year is 1976, the place is San Francisco, and Charlotte starts partying practically every night – with drugs and booze, and new boyfriend, Monroe (Alexander Skarsgard). One night at a bar – which Charlotte pushed the pair into going to toward – Minnie and Monroe get to talking, which leads to a lot more than talking. She says he wants him to “fuck” her, and after a limited amount of resistance, he agrees, starting an affair that will run through the movie. Monroe is clearly a creep, but even with a 1970s mustache, he isn’t the one dimensional kiddie rapist that we would expect to see in a movie like this. He’s immature – perhaps as immature as Minnie – who manipulates and uses him as much as he does with her. This certainly doesn’t excuse his behavior – but it does allow for more context than we normally see in a movie like this. Besides, Minnie doesn’t feel used – she feels liberated. Once she discovers how much she likes sex, she continues to explore that – in a series of encounters that verge on becoming dangerous, without ever quite getting there. When a classmate she is sleeping with tells her that her “aggressiveness” scares him, he’s out of the picture. When her first girlfriend tries to pimp her out for drugs, she’s gone as well. Her sometimes partner in crime is Andrea (Miranda Bailey) – her blonde best friend who is as willing as Minnie to push the boundaries past the normally expected levels.

Now, admittedly, this probably sounds like an exploitation picture like the fictional Rochelle, Rochelle from Seinfeld about a “young girl’s strange erotic journey from Milan to Minsk” – which in other hands is how this material undoubtedly would have played. But the film is written for the screen and directed by Marielle Heller and based on a novel by Phoebe Gloeckner, and they keep the focus squarely on Minnie throughout. The camera respects Powley, the actress, and Minnie the character with none of the usual shots we would get here. The sex scenes – many of them have Powley at least partially dressed – concentrate on her, and her pleasure, not the other way around. It locks into her perspective, and stays there. The film works, in large part, because Powley is so good as Minnie – she was in her 20s when he made the film, but looks like a teenager in the film – with a kind of awkward walk (and more awkward run) that at times make her seem more childlike – although throughout the course of the film, she loses part of this. The movie works because it gets that being a teenager is literally being caught in between being a child and being an adult – which means sometimes you’re one, and sometimes you’re another, and often those times crash into each other, as happens often here. It also works because the two other key performances are excellent as well. If Kristen Wiig weren’t a SNL veteran, she would probably get more credit for becoming an Indie Queen – doing great work in a series of small movies. Here, he’s playing a woman who is largely a narcissistic – but not a completely hideous one who doesn’t care about her daughter – just one who doesn’t know what the hell is going on with her. Skarsgaard is excellent as well – a kind of awkward teenage in a grown man’s body – who drifts from one thing to another with “big plans” (he’s going to start a mail order vitamin business and then buy a boat), when really all he does is get drunk or stoned, and have sex with either Charlotte or Minnie. He’s a creep – but doesn’t see himself that way.

The Diary of a Teenage Girl doesn’t judge its characters, nor does it endorse their behavior. It is an honest exploration of this girl discovering her sexuality, and owning her decisions. It’s rare to see a movie like this – it walks a very fine line between, and does it very well.