Green Book – 3 out of 5
My desire to see Green Book wasn’t very strong. Granted, I was totally going to check it out because I find both Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen to be tremendous talents but the Hollywood trope of a white racist suddenly becoming not racist because they hung out with a black individual and now we all need to celebrate a white person doing one of the easiest things in all of existence (not being a racist asshole) has grown tiresome and never offers anything new from the tired old formula—and, as per usual, this type of crap hits ends up winning awards because the aging white people in Hollywood—who’s progressive stances seem to begin and end in the 70s—see this and their white guilt senses go bonkers. So, I basically knew exactly what I was getting into when I sat down to watch it. I was going to watch a film that was mainly created by a white crew and contained a story about racism shown almost entirely through a white man’s eyes and, not surprisingly, all its praise is all white guilt inspired hype. Still, it’s not a terrible movie…but not a great one either.
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| "It's a white guy driving a black guy around. We solved racism." - White Hollywood executives |
After the nightclub that Frank “Tony Lip” Vallenlonga (Mortensen) works in is closed for renovations he becomes desperate for work. One day, he is asked to meet with infamous pianist Dr. Donald Shirley (Ali) and is asked to be Shirley’s driver for a tour along the Midwest and South. The tour will take eight weeks and will bring some money along the way but there is a problem. Frank is a bit of a racist and Don Shirley is black. What follows is two men from opposites of every spectrum on a journey of understanding, self-discovery and just how deeply racism is ingrained in the early 1960s.
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| Play the song from Big! |
I don’t want to drag Green Book through the mud too harshly because of its adherence to played out and, sadly, ignorant ways of exploring racism in films because it does have some positives to it. The biggest strengths this film has are in the humor and in the two leads. The feature was directed and co-written by Peter Farrelly so the film's humor is pretty good and definitely made me chuckle. Thankfully, the humor is way more subtle than a majority of the other gags and jokes Farrelly has become known for and, additionally, this element helps make the feature palpable in the moment and keeps you from recognizing that the whole film is basically made for all the white characters that were in Jordan Peele’s film Get Out.
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| Tone deaf social commentary aside, Ali was dynamite in this film. |
Without a doubt, my favorite aspect about the film and what I found to be the strongest element to the feature is the performances of Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali. Both men are extremely talented and they show it in Green Book. The two also showcased a chemistry for each other that validated and legitimized their growing and evolving relationship. This chemistry is also why a lot of the humor worked because they were great with their “odd couple” approach and really knew how to balance each other’s characters out for the humorous sections to work.
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| "...yeah, I just walked right in. The claims that you can't simply do that are greatly over-exaggerated." |
This was pretty much where the positives run out for me because there is no escaping that this is just another empty, soulless, completely vacuous project from white Hollywood to explore racism almost exclusively through the eyes of the ones who aren’t victimize by it and they act like it is a victory when they come to understand the problem and have one scene where they tell other racists to knock that shit off. And, as per usual, it is wrapped up in a thick blanket of Oscar-bait—and, in this case, it worked.
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| After seeing a scene where a white man teaches a black man how to eat fried chicken in the south, this movie could have literally done anything because all believable content was thrown out the window. |
Green Book isn’t a terrible film but it’s not groundbreaking as it runs as fast as it can to a well that has long since dried up. It’s exploration of racism feels dated and sometimes even sad and pathetic by 2019 standards. Yes, the story has some fun moments and there are some great character moments that are easy to sympathize with but becomes problematic because it oversimplifies racism. And yes, the performances are just absolutely terrific. Ali and Mortensen are fantastic to watch and their chemistry together is undeniable…but it all comes back to the played out and tiresome exploration that this movie showcases and it left me being generous and saying this is an okay film. It has enough working in its favor that makes it decent but it’s been done and played out and there's no denying how tone deaf it is.
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