If all this sounds hopelessly hokey — and there are stretches in "The Madison" where it irredeemably is — then you'll want to do something else with your Saturday night. Otherwise, there's beauty here, some nice performances and a welcome pivot away from the mayhem of "Yellowstone."
The main reason to give this version of "The 'Burbs'" a chance, of course, is the interplay between Palmer, Pell, Proksch and Julia Duffy ("Newhart") as the neighbors with a lot of time on their hands. They keep the energy high and the laughs coming.
The test for the picture, then, comes in whether it's possible to emerge from it with any new insight into the man himself and into why his work resonates as much as it does. And the filmmakers find plenty of material on both fronts.
