One White Woman's (ill-advised?) Journey toward and Rave Review for Green Book

(:)(:)(:)(:)(:) Five Enthusiastic Snouts up for the movie Green Book which controversially just won best picture.  It was a bit of a journey getting to Green Book, but I finally did, and, spoiler alert, I loved it.  When I first heard about the movie, I immediately wanted to see it.  But I had read reviews and heard from critics that it might be sentimentalizing segregation.  That it was just another black white buddy film written and directed by white men.  That it was the new Driving Miss Daisy (only reversed).    

These criticisms really caught our attention, and we strongly considered skipping the film altogether.  Then our young adult children came home for Christmas holidays and we took a look at the movie offerings on a given day.  Only two films that the four of us could agree upon were being shown in the right window:  Green Book and Creed II.  Unfortunately our kids talked us into Creed II--I didn't have the pleasure of seeing the original Creed (full confession: in the late 70s I had a poster of Sly Stallone on my bedroom wall), I'm told it was a steep fall from I to II.  

That choice behind us, I put Green Book in the back of my mind and kind of assumed I wouldn't get to see it.  Then a friend of mine left a long voicemail message with a "spiritual check-in" that was 90% about how good Green Book was, or at least I thought that was what she was talking about, the message was slightly garbled.  The next time I spoke with her directly, I brought it up.  "Were you talking about the movie Green Book on that message?"  She said "yes! have you seen it yet?"  I said no, and mentioned the critical reviews.  She said she hadn't read those reviews and that she and her relative (both of whom are African-American) had absolutely loved it.  So there's that...

Then about a month later, ANOTHER friend, in another ostensibly spiritual talk, speaks for 15 minutes about how Green Book was kind of a life movie for her (a 'life movie' is a movie that is so perfect for you that it's one of your top movies of your life).   I spoke with her about this afterwards, and told her about the negative reviews.  She, an African American woman who also happens to be a top concert musician, expressed disagreement and said "consider the source, that movie was God's honest truth."  So there's that...

And then we saw it.  Just last weekend it was the only thing we could find to do on a Sunday afternoon of a holiday weekend within walking distance of our hotel in San Francisco.  Oh. My. God.  We just absolutely loved this film.

Now, I haven't seen every movie that was nominated for best picture this year and so I'm not positive that I would have voted for it for best picture.  But I can tell you that this particular white woman found it to be a stunningly beautifully written and acted movie about the relationship between these two men in the context of segregation.

The deep cynicism of some of these negative reviews honestly makes me wonder if any of these folks actually watched the movie or did they just read the plot?  Yes.  There is SO much about the conceit of the film that could have gone badly awry in the execution:  black white buddy road movie genre is SO over done.  The elite African-American pianist could have been portrayed as a caricature.  The movie could have made the northern whites seem non racist or the southern whites seem to be racists with a heart of gold.  None of that happened (in my estimation).

The dialogue, the character development, the relationship works.  It just does.  Tony Lip, the Italian driver, is a bit of a caricature of Italian Americans in some ways, and definitely provides the comic relief.  But the film was created and written by his actual son, and this is a true story.  And Viggo Mortensen, who plays Tony, displays a stunning range of emotions, skills and depth.  I haven't seen Bohemian Rhapsody and I've heard that Rami Malek's performance is amazing, but I'd have no trouble handing Viggo an oscar for that performance.

And Mahershala Ali was equally magnificent as Dr. Don Shirley.  What beauty, what poise, layered over such humanity.  I'm thrilled that he won best supporting actor.

Now lets talk about Spike Lee and Blackkklannsman for a second.  I am a HUGE Spike Lee fan.  I was outraged when Do The Right Thing--which I consider to be one of the greatest films of all time--was passed over.  But Blackkklannsman is not even in my top 10 favorite Spike Lee films.  So no, I don't think I have to be outraged that it was overlooked for best picture.

I don't fully understand how or why the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences makes its decisions.  And I can't know that Green Book "deserved" the oscar.  But I can know that IMHO it was one helluva film.