Is Green Book the next Best Picture? It’s gotta be the favorite at this moment, right? What’s that? “Roma?” ROMA?! HAHAHAHA. Sure, if you can stay awake through hour #4, I suppose it eventually pokes your brain a little. Green Book is much more. Green Book may not be my favorite film this year, but at this moment I don’t see good reason why it won’t collect the only Oscar that really matters … and I’m not going to give you a single reason why it shouldn’t.
Prodigy-turned-virtuoso Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) lived –literally- atop Carnegie Hall in the 1960s. I’m pretty sure that ain’t rent-controlled housing. Green Book wasn’t entirely concerned with Dr. Shirley’s residence, Jamaican upbringing, or PhD in psychology. The film examines a single concert tour in the Deep South in which the erudite and refined Dr. Shirley gave SRO piano concerts for the cream of Southern society and was still reduced time and again to his skin color rather than the content of his character. The title Green Book refers to a guide for black motorists as to which motels they could legally patronize during the era. I had no idea such a book existed.
Countering Dr. Shirley’s refinement is his temporary valet, chauffeur, and quasi man-servant Tony Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen), a high end bouncer. Tony is about as open as a calzone; upon seeing two black men drink water from glasses handed by his wife, his response is to toss out the glasses. When Tony’s club gets shut down for the rest of the year, he and the fam need money; will he swallow his bigoted pride and drive for Dr. Shirley? Shirley, you must be joking.
The contrast between scholar and blue collar couldn’t be more pronounced. So much so, it almost borders on cliché. Yet both men are hidden gems – Dr. Shirley’s elitist façade is undermined by mere desire to visit the South, ground he knows will be hostile. Tony’s racist notions are undermined by the fact that he will take the job and he clearly sees Dr. Shirley’s education as a pillar he can’t touch. Half the joy of this movie is understanding these two men do have common ground – as all people do—so long as they’re willing to bend a little; the other half is watching how these two approach the questions of racism. As Tony evolves, we see him grow increasingly hostile to the racism he himself demonstrated earlier in the film; meanwhile, the genuine subject of the racism, Dr. Shirley, remains stoic in the face of hate. Calling them an Odd Couple is reductionist and unflattering; it’s true, but this relationship holds so much more than contrasting approaches.
These are two fantastic performances. Mahershala Ali won the Oscar for Moonlight. He’s better here. Viggo Mortensen might just be the most underrated actor of this generation. I’m not sure if it’s that he made his name in fantasy, where many careers go to die, or if it is simply that his name is “Viggo,” but he can be counted on to deliver great performances, and this is among his best as well. I find it impossible not to love what both these men are doing on screen.
Enjoyable from start to finish, Green Book works on several levels:
- You can love this film for the music.
- You can love this film for the performances.
- You can love this film for the social message.
- You can love this film as a buddy road picture.
- You can love this film for the dialogue.
- You can love this film because it reminds you of Driving Miss Daisy, another film you should love.
And after you enjoy it on surface level alone, you can understand that Green Book is a masterpiece for describing the current morass we are in without overstating it. The phantoms of racism past have risen again under the title “MAGA.” Are we far removed from another Green Book era where lodgings, restrooms, public areas are “separate but equal?” No, we really aren’t. Voter fraud and voter suppression are the new Jim Crow; you realize that, right? The issues don’t go away just because we say they do; they go away when racism actually goes away, like when the idea of a racist President is horrifying enough never to elect one again.
Tony ain’t so good with the gramma
As Aragorn he used to lay down the hamma
There’s a new foe to deal
His dilemma, now real
There aren’t many orcs in Alabama
Rated PG-13, 129 Minutes
Director: Peter Farrelly (yes, the director of Dumb and Dumber and Dumb and Dumber To. That Peter Farrelly)
Writer: Nick Vallelonga, Brian Hayes Currie, Peter Farrelly
Genre: Things that should be different now, but aren’t
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: People who look at quality film the way new mothers look at their babies
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: The soulless
