Green Book Review

On November 27, the National Board of Review named "Green Book" as their best film of 2018. A few hours later, I went and saw the movie. This was purely coincidental as I was already planning on seeing the movie that day before I heard that announcement. This was the week after Thanksgiving and I had already seen "Ralph Breaks the Internet" and "Creed II," so it was time to go see the other movie that I was wanting to see that opened (or expanded, rather) that week. The National Board of Review is one of the first major precursors for the Oscars, so it was the first look into what movies are going to get some attention come time for the Oscar nominations in late January. Following the announcement from the National Board of Review, AFI also listed "Green Book" as one of their top 10 best films of 2018. The Golden Globes then gave it five nominations, including best picture, best actor for Viggo Mortensen and best supporting actor for Mahershala Ali. Just recently, the SAGs also gave nods to Mortensen and Ali. So yeah, this movie is becoming quite the big deal this awards season and is certain to pick up a whole slew of Oscar nominations in January. Why it took me over two weeks to write my review is an excellent question, but here we are, so let's talk.

If you're not as crazy about the Oscars as I am and you're wondering what in the heck this "Green Book" movie is, well let me explain. This is a movie that is directed by Peter Farrelly, one half of the Farrelly brothers duo who directed "Dumb and Dumber," "There's Something About Mary," "Me, Myself & Irene," "Shallow Hal" and several other similar wacky comedies. But no, "Green Book" is absolutely not that style of comedy. In fact, it couldn't be any different from pretty much everything Peter Farrelly has done in the past, which is impressive in and of itself. Yeah, sure, it has comedy in it, but it is first and foremost a drama that tells the true story of an unlikely friendship between Dr. Don Shirley, a black classical pianist in the 1960's, and Tony Lip, a through and through New Yorker who has spent most of his time working as a bouncer in various clubs. They meet because Tony's job is done for a few months while the club remodels, so he needs a new job. Eventually he gets referred to Dr. Shirley, who is looking for a driver for his upcoming tour. It takes a bit of convincing, but Tony eventually accepts the job, with permission from his wife, which puts him on the road with Dr. Shirley for several weeks. Thus the movie becomes a road trip movie with these two characters.

Now I will stress again that this is not a comedy. Dr. Shirley and Tony aren't cracking jokes the whole time or pulling of gags like Harry and Lloyd in "Dumb and Dumber." But there is a lot of comedy in the movie that's more or less natural comedy given that these two characters are completely opposite of each other. Dr. Shirley is very elegant and proper. He also feels a bit compulsive as everything has to be done perfectly. Tony is the exact opposite. He feels very much like a redneck living in New York in that he is super chill and relaxed. He's also a bit disorganized and scattered, but he does a dang good job at what he does. When they get to a certain location and the people setting up for the concert don't have the right piano that Dr. Shirley wants, he's not afraid to confront them and force them into getting things right. But the humor comes in with the personality clash between these two. Watching them naturally interact with each other is hilarious because of how different they are and both Mortensen and Ali do a great job of staying in character and sticking to their guns. It's two genuinely fantastic performances as the two of them completely disappear into their characters, making you fully believe that its Dr. Shirley and Tony rather than Mahershala and Viggo.

But no, this is not your normal every day road trip on a concert tour. This is a white guy and a black guy travelling together through the South, because that's the region that Dr. Shirley insists on doing his tour. And remember, the time period here is the 1960's. So yeah, with that in mind, you know exactly what type of movie this going to be. And for better or for worse, the movie delivers on that. In terms of the "for worse" part of that, there's a term called "Oscar bait" that oftentimes comes with a negative connotation. The movie does a great job of specifically pandering to the awards season crowd, taking the list of things needed to be included in order to be considered for awards and shamelessly checking off every single box. The movie knows what it needs to do to be culturally relevant in 2018 and it makes sure to do just that. I imagine some might get bothered by this, viewing the movie that as one made to bait the Academy rather than being made to tell a good story worth telling. But I wasn't one of said people bothered by it. I think the big reason that I wasn't was because I was so attached to these two characters. I had a feeling I knew what was coming for them, but the idea still made me nervous and I spent the whole movie cheering for them to make it out of it.

Because, yeah, racism is the big theme here. Dr. Shirley is certainly no stranger when it comes to racism in the 60's, but he also doesn't fit into your typical black person mold from the time period. He personally doesn't feel like he quite fits in with his people, which provides a significant portion of drama for the film. He's not trying to fit in. He's trying to be himself and hopefully do his best to change people's hearts. But that obviously doesn't go quite as planned, especially when they get into the deep South. One of the things that is interesting about their experiences in the film is that Dr. Shirley is going around to people who are openly welcoming him in to perform for them. White people who are mostly super rich. They are inviting him to perform so that they don't look racist, but of course it's all superficial because they don't let him eat in their restaurants, they don't let him use their restrooms and they usually only give him a small closet to get prepared in. So deep down they are super racist, but are using him to put on a mask to make themselves seem good. This is all heartbreaking and tragic, especially when we see Dr. Shirley accept this without any fight or argument. As an audience member, you want to see something done about all of this.

The other person that wants to see something done is Tony. He starts to realize exactly what is going on and he doesn't want to tolerate it, but Dr. Shirley is fairly insistent on not using violence or anger towards these people, even though you can feel him hurting with the way he's being treated. I don't want to dive too deeply into how everything's resolved, but there's some really beautiful character arcs between both Dr. Shirley and Tony. They start off as such opposite characters whose personalities clash very hard. And while those moments create a lot of humor, it also sparks the intense drama that forces both of these characters to learn and to grow from each other and from their experiences on this concert tour. While the sequences involving racism are heartbreaking, especially seeing racism portrayed as people superficially trying to make themselves look good and sound good while deep down they are really awful -- something that perhaps is more accurate than seeing people be bluntly racist, the way this story moves and converges brings a lot of happiness. It teaches that people can learn to grow and live together, regardless of their background. But not just that, it shows that people with vastly different backgrounds can grow to become best friends.

I left "Green Book" feeling so uplifted. It brings all of the warm, fuzzy feel-goods to you in all the right ways. It was a movie about racism that reminded me of something like "Remember the Titans," which is a movie that showcased people of completely different backgrounds and cultures converging to become best friends. Those genuinely crafted relationships in "Remember the Titans" bring you so much joy that you can see the film as an example of the fact that good things can happen in an awful world. These are the exact same feelings I had with "Green Book." It may not go as dark, grim and violent in the portrayals of racism like movies such as "BlacKkKlansman" or "Detroit" do. But it does enough to get the point across loud and clear while focusing mainly on this friendship between Dr. Shirley and Tony that leaves you with such positive, happy feelings. There are plenty moments of humor, but a lot more moments of solid, powerful, genuine emotion. In fact, the movie is centered around the Christmas holiday as the goal is to get back from this tour on Christmas Eve so Tony can spend the holiday with his family. Because of this and other themes that I won't dive into, this could be seen as a perfectly festive movie for the season. I'm going to give "Green Book" a 9/10.