MOVIESA Beautiful Day
in the Neighborhood
Tum Hanks, starting in Marielle Helli:r's new
film aa the singular Mr. Rogers, complete with
cozy knitwear and matching homilies, not only
re-cRates f!ferf quirk of the chuactu's gesturel
and speech but prevents what could livc been
the mushieat of fables from sliding aver the
edge into sentimentality. The 1tory turn1 on
the plight of Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys). a
journalist who is sent to interview Fred Bogen
and finds himself revealing the cause of his scan,
both phylial and emotional. Thill rcdemptiw
encounter is played out in a low and •ubtle key;
Heller, u she prowd in "Can You Ever Forgive
Me~" (2018), hu become something of a special-
ist in damaged souls. With strong support from
SUlall Kdechi Wat1on, as Vogel's win:, and Chris
Cooper, aa his sad and loutish father.-.Anthony
Lime ~in owiuwof1112S/19.) (Strtmn-
ing on .Ama:um, Googlt Play, anJ othtr mtlim.)Eight Hours Don't Make a Day
The German director Rainer Werner Fuabind-
er's five-part, nearly eight-hour television ae-
ries, from tm-one of his moat un115uaJ and
aelf-rc:vcaling projects-defies political shib-
boleths of his artistic milieu. It's centered on
one enended family in Cologne, and on the
romance between a factory worker named Jo-
chen (Gottfried John) and a receptionist named
Marion (Hanna Schygulla). Jochcn, who's de-
voted to his job, designs a derice to increue his
colle&£Uel' productivity-thereby threatening
their bonuses. Meanwhile, his grandmother
(Luise Ulrich) recruits the whole family to help
her illegally tum an empty storefront into a
nursery school. Fassbinder fills the series with
ordinary troubles-the shortage of alfordahle
howiing, cuual ruism, hostile bosses-and
dramatizes the practical. power of wurlcing-daas
people to impnm: their circumatanccs. With
grand cinematic ftouri&hea-a gyrating camera
ona~floorandatacall table,~
colorful viaiom of romance, and hair-trigger
CDD!My of pratfalls and narrow escapes-Fus-
binder aalts the intrepid aploits of the hidden
heroell of daily life. In German.-Ridiard ~
(Smamint on w Critttion Channtl.)Hail, Caesar!
Joel and Ethan Coen'• inside-Hollywood com-
edy, set in 1951-amid Mc~te inqumtions
~ and aemal. taboos-is scintillating, uproarious,
Z
~ substantial. and playfullypenonal. A handful of
w Hollywood Communists kidnap Baird Whitlock
:I: (GeoigeClooncy), thehunkystarofaNewTes-
~ tament epic; Eddie Mannllt Qosh Brolin), the
Q studio fixer, needs to bring Baird back. Eddie,
~ a devout Catholic in a Jewish-run business, has
~ many other troublea to deal with, includin_g
;;! a pregnant aquatic star (Scarlett Johansson),
~ a Western linger (Alden Ehremeicb.) cast in a
Qi chawing-room comedy, a pair of prowling gossip
~ columnists (both playal byTilda Swinton), and
~ a quartet of clergymen who vet the Christian
~ drama's script. With looee-limbed performanca
~ ~ i~ "riaual rhythms, the Coen brothen
gleefully riff on the easenceofHollywood and
~ the idiosyncratic personalities that find sur-
o priaingly free ~sion there. They contnst
traditional belief systems, religious and polit-
ical, with the new gospel of movies-their own
American faith, which comes to life onacrecn.
Released in 2016.-R.B. (Stnoming on .Amaaon,
HluTi.be, anJ othet-"1f'flicei.)Harlem Nights
This boldly original, boisterously idiosyncratic,
yet introspective drama-a gangland tale, set
briefly in 1918 and then mostly in the nine-
teen-thirtiea-is the only movie that Eddie
Murphy has directed to date. He also wrote
the elaborate story, about a night club run by
a gambling-ring operator named Sugar Ray
(Richard Pryor), whose adopted SOJ1 (Desi Amez
Hines II), a trigger-happy orphan, grows up to
bc:icomc his right-hand man, an impetuous trvu-
blemaker called Quick (Murphy). The film iu
whirlingly divergent romp, blending agonizing
violence with outrageous humor; above all, it has
the feel of oral history, of livea and times rescued
from oblivion. It featuta a boat of attuagant,
Q.citing performers (including Della~ and
Redd Fon), and the plot involves some out-
landish twists, but the comedy is dead earnest.
With a labyrinth of brutal thrcau and subtleAKrONLINEdouble-aoues, fatal misunderstandings and
deft evasions, Murphy brings to life a teeming,
Dbled put that undcn:uts nostalgia with authen-
tic mions of danger. Releaaed in 1989.-R.B.
(Streaming on Netjli:i anJ othtr rervias.)AKI'Deanna Dikeman
In 1990, when this photugnpher'1 parents were
in their early seventies, they sold her child-
hood home, in Sioux City, Iowa, and moved to a
bright-red ranch house in the same town. At the
end of their daughter's "risi.ts, they would stand
outside as she drove away, um1 rising togd:hcr
in a .farewell wave. For years, Dikeman captured
those departing moments; the remlting por-
trait series, "Leaving and Waving," compresses
nearly three decades of adiem: into a deft and
affi:eting chronology. The pair ncede into the:
warm glow of the garage on rainy evenings and
laugh under the eaves in better weather. In
aummer, they blow kiues from the driveway.
In winter, they wear scarves and stand behindIn 1996, the prescient American artist Mark Tribe recogruud that the
Internet is more than a virtual showroom for conventional work-it's a
category-eva&ng artistic medium in its own right. He started a Listserv
for like-minded thinkers and named it Rhizome, a botanical term (then in
vogue with semiologists) that describes an unpredictable, always expanding
network. Over the years, Rhizome has grown from an upstart into a stal-
wart nonprofit based in New York and affiliated with the New Museum.
It oommissi.ons and preserves digital art, and cxlu'bits it, too, notably in
the continuing series "Fll!it Look: New Art Online" (at rhizome.org and
newmuseum..org). The contents are as multifarious as the medium. Curious
howpixds stack up to paint? Scroll through the eight-person show"Brushes,"
which ranges in tone from airy and calligraphic (Laura Brothers's "Deux
Blue") to memelike and manic (Jacob Ciocci's animated GIFs). Binge-watch-
ers can catch a three-part musical episode of Shana Moulton's surreal pseudo
soap opera, "Whispering Pines, nwhose housebound heroine indulges in self-
care routines that--spoiler a1ert--tum her into a goddess.-Andrea K. &qtf