FILM

Tom Hanks Becomes Mister Rogers in First "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" Trailer

In the trailer Tom Hanks perfectly embodies the beloved TV personality.

Mister Rogers and Tom Hanks side by side.

Sony

Last year, Morgan Neville's documentary, Won't You Be My Neighbor, came out and touched hearts across the nation.

Today, the trailer for Sony's A Beautiful Day in The Neighborhood came out, to the delight of Mister Rogers fans everywhere. Based on the trailer, it appears that the director, Marielle Heller ("Can You Ever Forgive Me," "Diary of a Teenage Girl"), was able to capture the best of both Mister Rogers as a person and Tom Hanks as an actor. Throughout the two-minute clip, Hanks embodies the television personality's mannerisms and spirit that captured so many children's imagination. It's difficult to argue that this casting choice—the beloved and kind Tom Hanks playing the beloved and kind Fred Rogers—is anything other than impeccable.

The film itself explores the real-life friendship between Mister Rogers (Hanks) and Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), a wary journalist assigned to profile the man who seems too good to be true. Watch the trailer below:

A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD - Official Trailer (HD)www.youtube.com

As mentioned in our 2018 year-end review, the year in film comprised a strange but satisfying mix of big-budget blockbusters and smaller, specific stories. Now, with a slate of Best Picture nominees ranging from Roma and The Favourite to Bohemian Rhapsody and Black Panther, it's clear the Academy feels similarly. But cast a net that wide and there are bound to be some snubs and surprises.

Snub: Women

There are no women in contention for the Best Director award this year, despite the fact that critics could not stop talking about the brilliance of Chloe Zhao's The Rider, Lynne Ramsey's You Were Never Really Here, and Debra Granik's Leave No Trace. Even Marielle Heller, whose Can You Ever Forgive Me? earned two acting nominations and a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination, couldn't seem to break into the category.

Surprise: Male Actors

Willem Defoe, Sam Rockwell, Viggo Mortensen, and Rami Malek all snagged acting nominations. On paper, the nominations of two returning nominees and a newcomer arriving on the wind of a great performance doesn't seem surprising. Yet add together the fact that Defoe's nomination is the sole nomination for At Eternity's Gate, Rockwell's and Malek's are for roles in films with broadly tepid reviews, and Mortensen's is for a film that's been regarded as problematic (to put it lightly), and the result is a strange, uneven lineup. Add again that BlackkKlansman lead John David Washington was shut out altogether, and the result seems like a mess.

Snub: No Director Nomination for Bradley Cooper

Surely Bradley Cooper is thrilled that his directorial debut, A Star is Born, has garnered eight nominations, including Best Picture. While the film has been recognized for acting, writing, music, and cinematography, he was left out of contention for Best Director, which he wanted so badly we could all taste it. Alas, like Ben Affleck before him, he couldn't seem to go full Clooney. Which proves that there can be 24 awards at the Oscars, and you can be nominated for eight of them, but only one is the one that will make the industry take you seriously as a filmmaker, and that, to Bradley, is Best Director.


Rebecca Linde is a writer and cultural critic in NYC. She tweets about pop culture and television @rklinde.


POP⚡ DUST | Read More…

"Jane" Spins Off, Gilead Gets New Neighbors, and more: This Week's TV News

Now in Theaters: New Movies for the Weekend of January 25

"Glass" Is Enjoyable If You Don't Get Your Hopes Up

Film Lists

Popdust's Best of 2018: Movies

This year's staff picks are in!

While there was no avoiding the big-budget blockbusters and franchise films that are churned out in a never-ending cycle of sequels and reboots, 2018 also provided a full slate of movies that thrived on specificity. Smaller scale, but fully-realized, stories got a ton of critical acclaim, offering audiences a look into the mind of a reverend questioning his faith—in everything, the trajectory of a telemarketer on a very precise path to the top, and a tween's YouTube page, among other deeply personal narratives. That so many films this year dug deep into such singular stories is perhaps a good sign that, in the otherwise precarious cultural landscape of 2018, we still value stories that are different from our own.
Keep ReadingShow less