While the summer season is again stacked from week to week with blockbuster movies, the most successful documentaries also tend to be released at this time of year. Focus Features is hoping the trend holds true for their Fred Rogers doc, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, which looks at the beloved host of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.
Directed by Morgan Neville, whose previous doc 20 Feet from Stardom won him an Oscar, the film explores “the heart of a creative genius who inspired generations of children with compassion and limitless imagination.” And by most accounts it is as honest and thoughtful as the man himself, revealing aspects of the man our parents trusted to teach us life lessons on a daily basis through his imaginative program.
This is just the first movie on Rogers on the way, with the other being You Are My Friend which stars Tom Hanks. In these situations the documentary tends to outshine the narrative film, and I think that may happen here, too. Call it a hunch.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? opens June 8th.
