Review of Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018) by Jake C — 20 Jan 2019

Tonally as gentle and serene as the TV host himself, the filmmakers wisely choose to by and large repudiate questions of Fred Rogers' personality, ignoring questions about his off screen character---a devout man of the clothe and lifelong Republican, one is left to wonder how Rogers felt about Vietnam or Watergate or the emergence of cable news in the 90s---and instead of a straightforward psychobiography, the documentary works to uncover the ethical and social motivation for Rogers' work with children.

Rather than dwell on what about his childhood led him to become so empathetic and in tune preschoolers---there is a brief allusion to Rogers' growing up well-to-do but bullied for being overweight---the film centers on how his essential kindness and grace motivated what remains a radical approach to children's programming.

It's an approach that leaves you feeling both desperate the world is lacking another figure like Rogers today, but also warmed by his basic message, one far more in line with the hippies of his own era than he may have realized: All you need is love, not a messiah.