A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD Review

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is not so much about Mr. Rogers as it is about how the ideas and values Mr. Rogers taught permeated through unto others. Fred Rogers was, among many things, the host of a children’s television show, but he was seemingly first and foremost a psychologist who just so happened to practice through the veil of a children’s TV show. He used this platform to help children better understand the world around them, but as director Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) conveys in her new film it wasn’t just the children who could gain something from Mr. Rogers' lessons in grace and humility. The movie works as well as it does not only because it takes a unique approach to the profiling of a very famous person, but because viewers are immediately endowed with the weight of Lloyd Voegle’s (Matthew Rhys) situation and quickly become invested in the complicated relationship he has with his father and how that fractured relationship has affected him in recently becoming a father himself. There is nothing that is necessarily revelatory or even terribly unique about Voegle's story (based on journalist Tom Junod's 1998 Esquire cover story), but Heller and screenwriters Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue pull us into the inherent drama of Voegle’s situation with the idea this could be anyone in any situation, but given the nature of his job it is someone like Voegle who was allowed the opportunity and access to Mr. Rogers needed in order to tell this type of story. This is Voegle's movie, make no mistake, as he is our lead whereas Tom Hanks' Mr. Rogers is merely a supporting player, but the arc that Voegle experiences is that of someone who's become a cynical adult and a relentlessly gloomy adult at that into someone who believes in the authenticity of Fred Rogers and therefore hopes to heal and better himself because of it. It is through his encounters with Mr. Rogers that Voegle is reminded of a childhood he could care less to remember, but Rogers doesn't so much care to remind him of his own childhood as he does encourage him to remember what it felt like to be a kid in the first place. We were all children once. This is Rogers’ mantra and something he reiterates time and time again in the rare moments he does return the favor and speak. And though A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood might not be the faithful adaptation of Fred Rogers' life as it was purported to be in the marketing it very much captures the essence of who this man was and how the way he conducted his own life helped countless people navigate theirs.

First Trailer for MOWGLI from Director Andy Serkis

While it always seemed odd Warner Bros. would craft their own take on Rudyard Kipling's 1894 collection of stories that spurned a 1967 animated Disney film that was recently re-made by Jon Favreau it is becoming all the more clear that Warner Bros. take on the material couldn't be more different than the light, largely comedic tone Favreau and team took with their realistic-looking 2016 feature. In his second directorial effort, following what was the rather standard, but kind of terrible Breathe last awards season, Serkis has gone fully over to the blockbuster realm of filmmaking of which he has had plenty of experience. When putting it in perspective, the guy has worked with a for directors ranging from Peter Jackson to Steven Spielberg to J.J. Abrams and of course, most recently, Ryan Coogler, and so it is natural for Serkis to have segued into crafting his own visual wonders while exercising his storytelling skills as well. And to be honest, Mowgli looks more impressive than I was anticipating with what is clearly some work left to be done on the CGI, but with as killer a cast as Warner Bros. has assembled to bring this to life and the tendency to lean more into the source material it will be interesting to see how this similarly inspired, but what is so clearly a vastly different finished product varies from the other iterations of Kipling's work. Watch the first trailer below along with a behind-the-scenes featurette. The film stars Serkis as Baloo, with Rohan Chand in the titular role as well as Christian Bale as the cunning panther, Bagheera; Cate Blanchett as the sinister snake, Kaa; Benedict Cumberbatch as the fearsome tiger, Shere Khan; Naomie Harris as Nisha, the female wolf, who adopts the baby Mowgli as one of her cubs; Peter Mullan as the leader of the wolf pack, Akela; Jack Reynor as Mowgli’s Brother Wolf; Eddie Marsan as Nisha’s mate, Vihaan; and Tom Hollander as the scavenging hyena, Tabaqui, and Freida Pinto. Mowgli opens October 19th, 2018.

BURNT Review

Burnt will certainly make you hungry. Whether it is for food or the better movie this had the potential to be will have to be decided by you when you come around to the "too neatly wrapped" ending it doesn't really deserve. For my money, Burnt is a movie that is fine enough because it features another committed performance from Bradley Cooper doing what he does best and that is him digging into the psyche of his character. What makes Burnt a not so stellar vehicle for the guys talent is the fact it is a story we've seen numerous times before. As soon as the set-up is delivered and we're keen to the conditions of all the major players it is clear where this thing is heading. Still, the credentials the movie sports are more than solid: Steven Knight (Locke) penned the screenplay (he also wrote last years under-appreciated The Hundred-Foot Journey to which Burnt feels like a lesser version), John Wells (The Company Men, August: Osage County) is at the helm (though it was once supposed to be directed by David Fincher-which really makes me want to see a Fincher/Cooper collaboration) and besides Cooper we have a pedigreed cast that includes Sienna Miller (American Sniper), Daniel Brühl (Inglorious Basterds), Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina), Omar Sy (The Intouchables) and Emma Thompson not to mention a quick cameo from Uma Thurman. So, with so much going for it why does Burnt feel so stale? It's actually somewhat difficult to pinpoint as it's not as simple as blaming it on any one aspect. The film, as shot by Adriano Goldman (Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre), is gorgeous to look at-numerous shiny surfaces contradicted by dark shades of facial hair and the bags under Cooper's eyes with the lovely London setting all adding something of a spice to the proceedings. The dialogue is direct, the intensity of Cooper's Jones when he gets worked up in the kitchen, while Gordon Ramsey-esque, is believable and yet it is the obligations the film feels it needs to make these characters hit that pull it into mediocrity. It's not the single downfall, but it becomes the most glaring the closer we get to the conclusion.

First Trailer for BURNT Starring Bradley Cooper

The Weinstein Co. has finally decided to release the full trailer for the latest Bradley Cooper-starrer that initially premiered Monday morning on the Today show. The film, which was originally titled Chef and then changed for obvious reasons to Adam Jones is now going by Burnt, and follows the career of a rebel chef who is determined to redeem himself by spearheading a top restaurant in London that can gain him his third Michelin star. While I'm curious as to if this will be the vehicle Cooper gets his fourth consecutive Oscar nomination for, but at this stage the film seems a bit too much on the fluffy side to be considered awards material. That isn't to say the film won't be good or that Cooper won't deserve a nomination (he'll also appear in Joy which reunites him for a third time with David O. Russell and Jennifer Lawrence), but it inherently feels less like something the Academy won't find worthy of such recognition. Regardless, the fact remains that Cooper has become one of the industry's top leading men (I'm not holding Aloha against him) who does consistently strong work and puts in serious effort that makes it clear he truly loves the craft. While Burnt will revolve around Cooper's chef whose ability to create explosions of taste is undermined by his badboy rants and diva behavior director John Wells (The Company Men, August: Osage County) has also rounded up a rather stellar supporting cast that includes Sienna Miller, Omar Sy, Daniel Brühl, Uma Thurman, Matthew Rhys, Emma Thompson, Alicia Vikander, Jamie Dornan and Lily James. Burnt opens on October 23rd against Jem and the Holograms, The Last Witch Hunter, the latest Paranormal Activity and Rock the Kasbah.