Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018) - Movie Review

Having spent a lot of time reading and watching American content creators, I have heard many a story about the man named Fred Rogers. And as an outsider looking in, his place in nostalgic history always seemed like an anomaly to me. When childhood entertainers like Rolf Harris and Bill Cosby were being exposed as utter human garbage, Mr. Rogers kept coming up as one of the few nostalgic icons that was still good. And not just good, but a kind of good that warmed its way into the hearts of an entire generation.

While Mister Rogers' Neighborhood is a well-worn television staple in the U.S., I over here in Australia never really experienced any of the man’s work. I mean, how good could this guy possibly be? A lifelong Republican, a religious minister who cared about making connections with children… maybe it’s just my cynical side peeking through, but how could this be the background of a man this beloved? Well, through the lens of They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead director Morgan Neville, I got my answer. Holy hell, did I get my answer.

They'll Love Me When I'm Dead (2018) - Movie Review

 

I feel like I shot myself in the foot with my last review. The one time I make it a point to highlight the necessity for context and putting a film into a larger perspective, to the point where I wind up writing about it than the film itself, and it turns out that someone else managed to do a far better job at that than I could ever have managed. I watched this film right after watching The Other Side Of The Wind, the result of which was a personally surreal experience where I felt like I was being schooled in how to talk about film. A lesser man would abandon this review entirely, go back to the other one and do some sneaky reworking to ease that inadequacy. It’s all in the editing, after all. But no, instead of making this entirely about me, I’ll just make it partially about myself as we take a look at this phenomenal making-of documentary.