“What the hell was that!?” said a colleague when we left the cinematheque after viewing A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood. As the usual routine is that we all shuffle out avoiding eye contact, jealously guarding our tiny insights, such an exclamation was – to say the least – unusual. I only wish I could have provided an answer.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood is one of the strangest films you will see this year. It’s a film that really shouldn’t work. One constantly feels at any moment the entire thing will degenerate into a vat of marshmallow.