Hanks and Rhys make Heller’s neighborhood worth visiting
Mr. Rogers (Tom Hanks, l.) is delighted to meet skeptical journalist Lloyd (Matthew Rhys).
I know a lot of folks who rolled their eyes when they heard that Tom Hanks was going to star as the beloved children’s show host Mr. Rogers. “Can’t this man ever play a serial killer?” they grumbled. While it’s true that in the new film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Hanks adds yet another saintly character to his resume of real-life hero portrayals (see: Sully, Captain Phillips, Saving Mr. Banks, and Bridge of Spies, to name a few), cynics should unroll their eyes into a forward-facing position long enough to go see this film. First, Hanks actually isn’t even the lead here; Matthew Rhys (The Americans), as a skeptical and unhappy journalist, is. Secondly, and perhaps most critically, Hanks gives a complex and genuinely moving performance.
Wrap up: 2018 San Francisco International Film Festival
The 61st San Francisco International Film Festival ended last Tuesday, but many of its offerings will find their way to your neighborhood cinema in the near future. We conclude our coverage of this year’s Fest by taking a look at four of the Fest’s films that you may want to keep your eye out for in the coming months (our previous coverage posts can be found here, here, and here). And if you’re curious to see which Fest films took home awards this year, you can see all the winners here. In the meantime, we’ll see you next year for SFFILM #62!
1.) Sorry to Bother You (USA 2018, 107 min. Centerpiece)
Detroit (Tessa Thompson) and Cassius (Lakeith Stanfield) join with striking workers at their telemarketing firm in Oakland.
Oakland rapper and artist Boots Riley got the hometown reception from the Festival this year, as his debut feature film was given a first-of-its kind, dual-venue Bay Area premiere at two of the Bay Area’s most iconic and beloved theaters: Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater and San Francisco’s Castro Theater. The movie had previously premiered at Sundance, where it garnered a Grand Jury prize nomination, but its Bay Area premiere definitely felt more special. Riley’s film centers on Cassius (Lakeith Stanfield, Get Out), a new employee at a telemarketing company in downtown Oakland (exteriors were shot around Kaiser’s Franklin Street building) whose rise up the corporate ladder doesn’t come without cost, to himself, his girlfriend (Tessa Thompson), and his friends, colleagues, and community. While inarguably entertaining, Riley’s film has a definite first attempt feel: elements of political satire, social criticism, surrealist comedy, outrageous sci-fi, and sweet romance often overlap to an extreme, coming dangerously close to burying the picture beneath its own everything-but-the kitchen-sink weight. Comedically deft performances from Stanfield and Armie Hammer, as a villainous corporate head, though, are appealing enough to make the flaws of Riley’s jam-packed screenplay forgivable.
Sorry to Bother Youwill open in the Bay Area on Friday, July 6th.
