Review of Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018) by John M — 15 Jul 2018

Not all heroes wear capes. Simply put, this is about the iconic Mr. Fred Rogers throughout his lifetime, from his humble beginnings to being the friendly face that smiled at children in most homes across the country.

Now even though I did grow up with Mr. Rogers, I have to admit that his show is not freshly placed in the forefront of my brain. Honestly, a lot of television in the 90's is blurry for me, but I imagine the same could be said about most people's childhood television programs.

Won't You Be My Neighbor accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do: it sheds light on moments that you probably weren't aware of, all with a healthy spoonful of nostalgia. Now this is a very well made documentary, but it didn't hit me in the way I was expecting.

This has been very well received by critics, and I pictured that this was going to be as effective as Being Elmo; I thought that this was sure to stir emotions deep inside of me that I had forgotten even existed and I would be an incapacitated puddle of emotions within the opening sixty seconds.

This is not that. Instead, it is more of a slow burn. It does still have moments that resonate to be sure, but I felt relatively composed throughout. Of course, that's not to say that there wasn't a time or two where I got misty-eyed, but I watched this in a theater that had full tissue boxes on the tables, and it never "got" to me in that capacity.

This documentary moves fairly fast as you study the man, who is both a humanitarian and an enigma. In this day and age where scandals seem to be as plentiful as ocean water, he really seems to be the last pure icon out there, and I can only thank the heavens for that.

There are a number of parallels that you can make between this and the political climate we are in, but that's not surprising, as history seems destined to always repeat itself. If this show and documentary encourage people to be nicer to each other, I am here for it, and I think fans and outsiders alike should take the time to watch this.