Failed Oscar Campaigns: "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" (2018)

Scene from Won't You Be My Neighbor?

As awards seasons pick up, so do the campaigns to make your film have the best chances at the Best Picture race. However, like a drunken stupor, sometimes these efforts come off as trying too hard and leave behind a trailer of ridiculous flamboyance. Join me on every other Saturday for a highlight of the failed campaigns that make this season as much about prestige as it does about train wrecks. Come for the Harvey Weinstein comments and stay for the history. It's going to be a fun time as I explore cinema's rich history of attempting to matter.

Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018)

Directed By: Morgan Neville

Written By: N/A

Starring: Fred Rogers, Joanne Rogers, John Rogers
Genre: Documentary, Biography

Running Time: 94 minutes

Summary: An exploration of the life, lessons, and legacy of iconic children's television host, Fred Rogers.

The Movie

Of every celebrity to have a renaissance over the past few years, nobody would've suspected it to be Fred Rogers. The famed PBS host of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood passed away in 2003 and has had a surprisingly bountiful legacy in the 15+ years since. While his show may have ended, his spin-off series based around Daniel Tiger still populate PBS Kids. He is the premier celebrity when talking about people who are too nice to ever be evil. As the world has changed and the American culture feels more polarized than ever, it makes sense why audiences are turning back to Rogers for some cheering up. As much as it's nostalgia for something simpler, it's also just the basic idea that anyone would show that naked of compassion for the world around him, embracing the new and accepting those different from him.

It's the gist of what director Morgan Neville's Won't You Be My Neighbor? was sold upon. The 2016 presidential election was considered a pivotal time in America in that it polarized varying beliefs and created a rift in society. In other words, many see it as a hostile time. Along with the viral sharing of old Rogers speeches and episodes, the culture has returned to the public access host almost out of necessity as a way to remind everyone that the world could be a brighter place. After all, Rogers lived through the same historical tragedies that many of his audiences did. He didn't solve it with tinfoil hat paranoia but instead finding ways to have a mature but accessible debate with his young audience. He didn't talk down, and in the process taught the compassion that he became known for.

Even if there are arguably only a dozen documentaries this decade that has broken free of the format's obscurity to become a cultural touchstone, Won't You Be My Neighbor? was one that felt like something special. It may have not had as radical of a revelation as The Act of Killing or Citizenfour, but as its original title (The Radical Mister Rogers) would suggest, there was something just as essential to the conversation. While Neville didn't quite change the world with his documentary, he helped to stoke the fire of an important cultural figure, keeping his heartwarming messages burning for future generations. It was the documentary success story of 2018, and one that is likely to stay with audiences looking for a respite from this cruel world. 

- The Campaign -

Like most of his peers, Neville found himself listening to old speeches that Rogers gave in his lifetime. Among the ones, he cites with getting the ball rolling is his congressional speech to fund public television. Speaking as he was coming off of an Oscar-winning turn for Best Documentary with 20 Feet From Stardom, he was very interested in pursuing another figure in the arts. Over the course of 2017 when he was compiling the footage and interviews, he found himself in a warm environment. It was the perfect antithesis to 2016, which in the American culture was wrought with tension. Mister Rogers' Neighborhood received a boost as a result, sending messages via YouTube videos about how to make the world a better place.

In 2018, the documentary premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and became a slow-burning success. The reviews were generally positive. The first trailer became its own success story with many praising it as one of the most heartwarming trailers of the year, even turning some to tears. The documentary always seemed like it would be a success, but nobody would've predicted that it would become the surprise hit of the summer. With several early year festivals giving good reviews and suggesting that it would cheer everyone up, the eventual release came with familiar acclaim.

Much like the trailer, the audience reaction was very positive. It was one of the many films promoting kindness that season, leading Indiewire's David Ehrlich to pen an article on "nicecore" movies. The documentary played especially well with religious groups who found its message encouraging, leading to a #BeMyNeighbor Campaign where the goal was to be nice to strangers. While it wasn't a hit in the same way that a studio blockbuster could be called a hit, the final box office boded well. At $22.8 million, Won't You Be My Neighbor? was a box office success in the documentary genre, becoming the highest-grossing documentary of the year. It was also the highest-grossing biographical documentary in general. Overall, it became the 12th highest-grossing documentary of all time, making its place in awards conversation all the more obvious.

The year 2018 was a banner year for pop docs. Other noteworthy titles included Free Solo and RBG, which did a good job of connecting with audiences and proving that the medium could reach general audiences and not some niche art house community. Still, none of them seemed to resonate in the same way that Won't You Be My Neighbor? did, which seemed destined to get the Oscar over the aforementioned titles. It won the Gotham Awards' Audience Award and even showed up at the Producers Guild Awards and the Directors Guild Awards. There wasn't any lack of nominations or build-up, so many saw it as a given leading into the final days. After all, it was the documentary that resonated the most in a year of resonating titles. 

- The Payoff -

In one of the rare moments of post-Oscar punditry, a documentary ended up leading the conversation. Won't You Be My Neighbor? was considered to be one of the most snubbed documentaries of the year. Some were confused, especially given that it was the most successful critically and financially that year. The arguments against the lack of nomination were that the documentary branch of voters generally didn't support pop docs, if just because of their lack of challenging aesthetics or narrative. Whatever the case may be, the documentary would go on to win Best Documentary at the Spirit Awards, so its journey to the end of awards season wasn't without one last burst. The winner that year was Free Solo, which had the added benefit of having a living subject that many claimed was fun to have interviews with during the awards contention.

While this is the end of Neville's portion of the story, Mister Rogers still has a bit of a way to go. Much like the documentarian, director Marielle Heller has reported watching old videos of Mister Rogers Neighborhood and feeling some heartwarming joy in them. It's what inspired her to sign on to direct the biopic It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, which would also star renowned nice guy actor Tom Hanks. The rights were technically picked up early in 2018, but the announcement of the biopic felt almost timed as a piece of Won't You Be My Neighbor?'s own Oscar campaign, proving the lingering value of Fred Rogers. 

If anything, this means that Mister Rogers will get a mulligan at the Oscars. Considering that Heller is coming off of Can You Ever Forgive Me, which landed Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant Oscar nominations, it stands to reason that she could do similar for Hanks - who hasn't been nominated since 2001's Castaway. Even then, early reviews have suggested that this time will be different. Maybe the public access host will get some love from The Academy. Otherwise, it feels like these two campaigns go hand-in-hand in a way that few have. It's too early to write about a Failed Oscar Campaigns for It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (if that actually is the case), but hopefully, it ends a little more successful than this one. Then again, one hopes that it could resonate as well as the documentary that proved that people will go out to see them, just so long as they have an interesting subject.