By Lindsey Bahr, AP Film Writer
If there is a big studio movie that's more generally crowd-pleasing than "Green Book " this season, I have yet to find it. In this landscape of challenging, provocative, edgy films, Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali and, of all people, director Peter Farrelly have come along with a movie about friendship that goes down so easy that it's almost suspect, as though it were flung out of 1996 and gifted to our weary 2018 brains.
Based on a true story, "Green Book" recounts a 1962 road trip when a Bronx bred Italian-American Frank Anthony Vallelonga, also known as Tony Lip (Mortensen), was hired to drive a renowned black pianist, Dr. Don Shirley (Ali), to all of his concert engagements across the Deep South.
The two men are obviously mismatched — what would anyone have to learn if they weren't? Tony is a working-class bruiser and world class eater with a wife (Linda Cardellini), two sons, a limited vocabulary, institutional racism, but a generally good heart. Dr. Shirley is a wealthy, erudite dandy, a master of his art, a snob and a loner. He also knows he needs reliable protection on this journey to a segregated south, asks around and finds this Copacabana bouncer Tony Lip is the one for the job despite the prejudices.
The constructs will feel familiar and well-worn and surprises are few on this journey toward acceptance and friendship, but the pleasure of this film is in the larger than life characters created by the two leads and their perfectly askew chemistry. Mortensen is almost unrecognizable as Tony, packing extra pounds and an astute comedic sensibility. He knows just how far to push his caricature without making it cartoonish. When Dr. Shirley says to make sure that there's a Steinway piano at every concert venue, Tony scribbles down "STAINWAY" on a sheet of paper. His doltishness is endearing, not annoying.
And Ali, so memorable and heart-wrenching in "Moonlight," puts his own stamp on a character who feels alienated from his own race and those he's performing for. Although a considerably more staid role than Tony, Ali also manages to have his own fun with Dr. Shirley's seemingly incurable snobbery, wincing at Tony's lack of decorum, or care.
In fact, this film allows everyone to play against their Hollywood-prescribed "type," from the actors to the director, who is perhaps the most surprising revelation of them all.
The Farrelly name conjures up a very specific kind of movie: The big, bawdy comedy that he and his brother made their own and, later, failed to keep fresh. If anything, the charm and success of "Green Book" makes a heck of a case for giving directors more room to work outside of the genres or styles that they became famous for.
There is certainly a more serious story to be told out of this road trip, and about Dr. Shirley's extraordinary life. "Green Book," taken from the title of the guide Tony has to use to find the establishments and hotels where people of color are welcome at throughout the South, scratches at the surface of the horrors and indignities Dr. Shirley faced while being a "guest of honor." Those range from being asked to use an outdoor toilet to being denied the right to dine in the place he's about to perform. This film chooses a different route, and is in turn funny, heart-warming, illuminating and a joy to watch.
"Green Book," a Universal Pictures release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for "thematic content, language including racial epithets, smoking, some violence and suggestive material." Running time: 130 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More