Compassion Project
Total Film|November 2019
Marielle Heller follows up the spiky Can You Ever Forgive Me? with a study in empathy, starring Tom Hanks. They tell Total Film about the importance of kindness and the ‘hell’ of filming in their Oscar worthy A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood…
Jane Crowther
Compassion Project

There’s an awkward silence as the usually stoic Chris Cooper weeps, mid-interview, at the Toronto International Film Festival. Wiping aways tears, his voice cracks as he tries to describe the sometimes cruel father he plays in his latest film. That unease, as Total Film and his colleagues wait for him to finish his sentence, is not born of pity or fontrum. It’s that this sort of vulnerability and emotional connection is not something we, as a society – overloaded as it is with bullying heads of state, trolls, a disgust for weakness and the hard edge of self-preservation – are comfortable with. And it’s that lack of empathy, humanity and kindness in today’s world that makes Cooper’s movie seem all the more necessary now.

Inspired by Esquire writer Tom Junod’s 1998 cover feature, ‘Can You Say… Hero?’ – a profile of Fred Rogers, the presenter of the 1968-2001 PBS kids’ show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, that also ended up being a treatise on modern masculinity, tapping into a jaded generation’s need for decency and wonder – screenwriters Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster began to look at adapting it for a film. Gaining the trust of Rogers’ family and co-workers, they uncovered thousands of emails that he and Junod had exchanged during the friendship that sprang from their first interview and lasted until the TV star died of stomach cancer in February 2003. Those emails provided the framework for a dramatised screenplay of events following a cynical investigative journalist, Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), as his interaction with Mister Rogers unlocks an existential quest that helps him find peace with his familial demons and understand his anxieties as a new parent.

This story is from the November 2019 edition of Total Film.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the November 2019 edition of Total Film.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM TOTAL FILMView All
Dune: Part Two – Desert Power
Total Film

Dune: Part Two – Desert Power

Like a colossal sandworm racing towards the rhythmic beat of a thumper, Dune: Part Two is almost upon us. And this time, it's war. Total Film returns to Arrakis with writer/director Denis Villeneuve and his (inter) stellar cast to spill the spice on the sci-fi event of the year.

time-read
10+ mins  |
February 2024
Here Be Dragons
Total Film

Here Be Dragons

DAMSEL – Millie Bobby Brown fights fire with fire in the bedtime story that’s finally being told the right way.

time-read
4 mins  |
February 2024
Back to School
Total Film

Back to School

MONSTER – Hirokazu Kore-eda’s latest takes us into a child’s viewpoint once again...

time-read
2 mins  |
February 2024
JESSIE BUCKLEY
Total Film

JESSIE BUCKLEY

Catapulting to fame over the last five years, instinctive Irish actor Jessie Buckley has wowed in films (Wild Rose, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Men) and TV (Chernobyl, Fargo S4). She was Oscar-nominated for The Lost Daughter, won a Laurence Olivier award for Cabaret and now she's spewing wild profanities at Olivia Colman in hilarious period comedy Wicked Little Letters.....

time-read
10+ mins  |
February 2024
Marty me
Total Film

Marty me

Thelma Schoonmaker has edited every Martin Scorsese movie since 1980's Raging Bull. The three-time Oscar winner tells Total Film all about their legendary relationship, and why movies like Good Fellas, The Departed and Killers of the Flower Moon are a cut above...

time-read
7 mins  |
February 2024
FRISKY BUSINESS
Total Film

FRISKY BUSINESS

Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan star as queer friends being chased by dumb male criminals in Drive-Away Dolls, a road movie/ romantic comedy/crime caper by husband-and-wife team Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke. Total Film hitches a ride with the directors and stars to talk dark laughs, dim crims and dildos…

time-read
9 mins  |
February 2024
JACK MY LIFE IN PICTURES BLACK
Total Film

JACK MY LIFE IN PICTURES BLACK

Over the years he's made us laugh as rockers, animated critters and videogame avatars. As he prepares to go full Dragon Warrior again in the fourth Kung Fu Panda movie, JACK BLACK riffs on some of his biggest hits with Total Film

time-read
8 mins  |
February 2024
DOG DAYS
Total Film

DOG DAYS

Pablo Berger's animated silent’ movie brings the noise.

time-read
2 mins  |
February 2024
BEHIND PARADISE
Total Film

BEHIND PARADISE

RED ISLAND A coming-of-age-tale that creatively explores France’s colonial past.

time-read
2 mins  |
February 2024
THE SIXTH SENSE
Total Film

THE SIXTH SENSE

MADAME WEB Dakota Johnson brings wit and grit to Sony’s clairvoyant-superhero-origin-story thriller.

time-read
2 mins  |
February 2024