Green Book
(2018)Inspired by a true friendship.
Road comedy-drama with Viggo Mortensen as an Italian-American bouncer from the Bronx hired to drive a world-class concert pianist (Moonlight's Oscar-winning Mahershala Ali) on a tour across the 1960s American South.... More
Confronted with racism and danger along the way, they must set aside their differences while relying on "The Green Book" to guide them to the few establishments that were then safe for African-Americans. Directed by Peter Farrelly (There's Something About Mary).Hide
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Directed by Peter Farrelly
Starring Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini, Don Stark, Sebastian Maniscalco, Tom Virtue, Brian Stepanek, Joe Cortese
Written by Nick Vallelonga, Brian Hayes Currie, Peter Farrelly
Flicks Review
BY Aaron Yap Flicks Writer
It’s 2019, and cinematic portrayals of racism, ideally, need to have progressed beyond the retrograde, broadly digestible lessons of Green Book. Following 2018's necessary incendiary punch of BlacKkKlansman and 2017's Get Out, the heart-warming, Oscar-bait packaging of Peter Farrelly’s film—based on a true story—almost smacks of fantasy.... More
That’s why I find myself surprised to have enjoyed this as much as I did, even recognising its approach to socially conscious storytelling has led at least one reviewer to describe it as the origin story of “how that racist guy who says ‘I’m not racist, I have a black friend’ met his black friend.”
Green Book is basically In The Heat of the Night repurposed as a Christmas stocking stuffer, decked out in cornball odd-couple, tit-for-tat laughs. The film entertains sufficiently on that level. As a close study of race politics, it’s idealised, overly glossy and goofy as all get out.
It doesn’t hurt that Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali are an infectiously hammy hoot together. They bring some heft to a screenplay that’s primarily centred around contrasting buddy schtick: Mortensen’s Tony Lip, a Bronx-raised, burly nightclub bouncer re-examines his bigoted attitudes as he goes on the road in the Jim Crow-era South, chauffeuring black Steinway-pounding classical virtuoso Don Shirley (Ali), who in turn, comes to terms with the difficulties posed by his class status.
Yes, Green Book is far from a complicated act. But its cartoonish sincerity and beaming optimism make it an agreeable two-hour reprieve from a more serious, complex conversation—one that needs to start again immediately after the credits have rolled.Hide
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Green Book
BY flexible20 nobody
i really loved this films freshness about the trip of the black , negro american , and the italian american ,side by side as they go down south in the 1960s. it was a very honest and heart warming movie .with two very good and popular stars playing the leading roles . they make the film .
BY LoganLives wannabe
BY Newt superstar
This is a lovely film and although it doesn't delve too far deep into the key issues it has a supremely uplifting feeling about it. The characterisation (and portrayal) of Tony Vallelonga is ace. Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali are great as is Linda Cardellini who flies under the radar. No pass on the Bechdel test because the focal point is two men. Sure to be a classic Christmas movie (for TV rotation).
The Press Reviews
Distinctive and amusing turns by Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali make Peter Farrelly's first solo feature outing a lively and likable diversion. Full Review
There's clearly a more nuanced drama to be made from this story but given the scale, there's still a lot here to praise. Full Review
Mortensen's role may be the showier of the two, but Ali is a marvel to watch in his musical performances. Full Review
"Green Book" is a savvy and super effective piece of popular entertainment. Full Review
Thanks to the dream team of Mortensen and Ali, both giving Oscar calibre performances, audiences will be rightly cheering this hilarious and heartfelt true story of a black musician and his racist driver on a 1960's tour of the Deep South. Full Review
There's not much here you haven't seen before, and very little that can't be described as crude, obvious and borderline offensive, even as it tries to be uplifting and affirmative. Full Review
The acting is better than the dialogue, which is better than the plotting. And I have to confess that in the current, insanely divisive political climate, I enjoyed Green Book's spoon-feeding mightily. Full Review
Producer and co-writer Nick Vallelonga – Tony's son – must be justifiably proud of getting his how-Dad-learned-to-stop-being-racist fable to the screen. But the greater evil of institutional and generational racism goes mostly ignored and unexamined. Full Review
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