Green Book movie review - Aussieboyreviews
DOES GREEN BOOK DELIVER FEEL-GOOD MESSAGES ABOUT RACE AND FRIENDSHIP?
The controversy for this true-story drama is pretty fair and it definitely won’t please everyone. However, the messages and morals on race, friendship and learning lighten the mood of racism throughout.
Storyline
During the 1960s, an Italian-American bouncer looking for temporary work is recruited by a talented African-American pianist as a driver for his concert tour. Their lives are soon changed when they begin to bond and nurture an understanding for each other.
Movie Images
Movie details
Director: Peter Farrelly
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini, Sebastian Maniscalco, Dimiter D. Marinov
Writer: Nick Vallelonga, Brian Hayes Currie, Peter Farrelly
Release Date (Australia): 24 January 2019
Runtime: 130 minutes/2h 10m
Genre: Biography, Drama, Comedy
Country: USA
Language: English, Italian
CONTENT GUIDE (warning: May contain spoilers)
The film’s themes are mainly concerned with racism and discrimination.
The film includes occasionally racial scenes in which men are punched and beaten that are infrequently accompanied by blood detail.
The film includes infrequent use of the word “f**k”, in addition to use of the words “s**t”, “ass”, “**shole”, “goddamn”, “prick”, “hell” and “n****r”.
None.
Two nude men are briefly viewed after implicitly having attempted to engage in sexual activity, but there is no nudity detail.
The film includes mild sexual references throughout, including verbal references to women with “huge t*ts” and a scene in which two nude men are briefly viewed after implicitly having attempted to engage in sexual activity.
mpaa rating
PG-13 (for thematic content, language including racial epithets, smoking, some violence and suggestive material)
Aussie boy's thoughts
Don’t worry about how exact-to-real-life this movie is or if the way it portrays the relationship between the two is accurate or not; it’s a nice feel-good drama laced with thematic morals on race, class and friendship. And to brighten it up even more if you don’t mind any inaccuracies, the convincing lead performances from Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali will make it worth your time anyway.
Green Book is a 2018 buddy drama-comedy with the story concentrated on Tony Lip, a married Italian-American man, who takes the job as a driver for Don Shirley, an African-American pianist on concert tour. As their relationship grows more understanding, they begin to bond and end up both learning from each other. The controversies the critic’s and audiences have pointed out from this motion picture, such as how Shirley’s family was not informed about how this film depicted the relationship with his relatives seeing it more as a client relationship than a friendship, makes for some very fair and solid controversy surrounding the film. And people who view it through that lens may see it as nothing other than twisted or false.
However, the main theme of Green Book is how a racist white Italian-American man’s opinion and view was changed after learning from Don Shirley, and vice-versa. Because of this, the majority of screen time is dedicated to Mortensen’s character and the film very clearly sets up his ideas and racist attitude against black people. There could’ve been more time spent with Ali’s character to set up his backstory, but the fact that it chooses otherwise is what makes this film so unique and a really special experience.
There’s very explicit flaws scattered all around; cliches relating to racism are absolutely everywhere and for some viewers, it’s gonna be understandably difficult to engage with the story if you simply aren’t interested in it. But if you can learn about the truth in your own time or simply don’t mind how this film’s reality is, this is a gorgeously-made, sometimes humorous, highly entertaining and smile-inducing movie that’s worth watching.
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