Nothing chills the blood like a fifty-two percenter saying that she is planning to see the same movie that I am. I would ordinarily skip a movie like Green Book because it feels like a movie created to make people feel good so they reassure themselves that they aren’t racist because they saw and enjoyed this movie, but I trust Mahershala Ali, adore Viggo Mortensen and have always classified Linda Cardellini as a solid player so I rushed to see it before I had time to change my mind.
Green Book is an odd couple road trip with a message of hope set in October through December 1962 as Tony, an Italian American bouncer, played by Mortensen, at the Copacabana needs work while the club is being renovated. Tony ends up becoming the driver for a classical pianist, Don Shirley, played by Ali. Of course, they find common ground despite their racial, socioeconomic differences and become friends. The movie is largely told from Tony’s perspective, which isn’t a surprise since one of the writers and producers is one of Tony’s sons, Nick Vallelonga.
Green Book is an affable movie that would have been relegated exclusively to television movie status if big name, talented actors were not attached to the production, and we weren’t in such turbulent times that certain segments of society actually need the lessons originally taught in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? Black people experience racism. Racism is bad. Black people are people. I guess since we’re grading on a curve lately, bravo! (Jesus wept. We’re doomed if we have to keep reminding people of these lessons then give out cookies when they get it right.)
Green Book can be a pleasurable viewing experience because you get to see a black man tell a white man to do better and boss him around. You get a white man beating up racist people while simultaneously being told by a black man that violence is wrong, which you may miss if your audience was cheering at every moment Tony whooped a racist man’s ass. Basically if you want to end racism in America, assign a vetted white man to every person of color whose family depends on our well being and let him do all the things that we’re not allowed to do without getting in trouble in our defense. (Side note: I’ve never gone that far, but a few well-placed allies or black people that no one can tell that they are black can save you a lot of headaches if you have to deal with some racist and/or sexist person, and those allies and passing without trying black people are willing to take that work off your plate.) Also Shirley apparently was stylish so you get old school glam fierceness throughout the film. Plus watching two great actors parry and play for over two hours at the height of their powers will always be a joy as Ali stretches himself to play a more textured human than Poitier generally got to play, and the Mortenson that we got to know and drool over in The Lord of the Rings trilogy as Aragorn completely disappears into a character that would eat a whole pizza as if it was a sandwich.
I was less thrilled by Green Book’s plot line that Shirley felt exiled from blackness, which, if that was actually his experience, is fine to depict, but was it? He was Jamaican, which I did not know from watching the movie, but found out afterwards. I don’t know enough about him to critique this depiction because it could be true, but I will go on a minor autobiographical tangent. When I was young, I lived in predominantly middle class to affluent white communities in Manhattan and still live in those communities albeit in a different region. My mom adheres to respectability politics extraordinaire and is not from the US, which means that I had seeds of this attitude planted in me. It never sounds racist or self-hating in the way that people cautioned me, but I was taught by my community, including my mother, to stay outside of certain neighborhoods and stay away from certain people, which happened to include a lot of black people. Well, I was born here, and guess what! When I go to the communities that I was warned about, I don’t stick out (as much, if at all) as they do, and black people welcome anyone, but especially black people, which I am a part of. I’m glad that the movie reflected this discovery that I had, but I wonder if it was more a reflection of the well-intentioned writers who feel awkward when they are in the rare position of experiencing what it feels like to be the minority when they are in spaces with more people of color then projecting it on to Shirley.
Green Book’s depiction of Nick is interesting. Obviously his son approved because he helped create the on screen persona, but how do Italian-Americans feel about this depiction, especially since a Dane is playing him? Nick is definitely more complex than he initially appears to be. He isn’t a thug, but getting physical is definitely in his wheelhouse. He is racist though he isn’t as militant as his family and has the ability to correct himself. Was Shirley an exception because of his excellence? The depiction of his comfort level in black spaces and the denouement suggests that it wasn’t. What was fascinating and plausible was how nonplussed he was in the face of other differences as opposed to race. I wasn’t expecting that detour, but once we arrived, I realized that I should have seen it coming, and I wanted a movie about whether or not there was an unofficial Green Book for LGTBQ people.
I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t end on a down note. The point of this tour was to change hearts and minds. Shirley definitely belongs in the annals of greatness for doing something that I would never do for any amount of money and doing it with style and grace, but I hate to say that it did not work. Fast forward to those regions today, and while the formal trappings of segregation may have been torn down, not much else has changed, and we’re in the twenty-first century. Also while I too have experienced the kindness of a cop warning me about having a flat tire and saving my life, you don’t have to be in the deep South to get scared if you get pulled over because you have no idea if you pulled the bad apple so while Green Book was nice, it still has roots in some fictions that we tell ourselves everyday.
See Green Book for the performances and the visual feast. The story is entertaining, and I left knowing more about Dr. Shirley than when I walked in, but if you are not a fan of the actors, and you can’t stomach any of these well worn, but apparently still necessary platitudes, then skip it. People loved it and brought their kids thinking that they were making a difference. Time will tell.
Green Book is an odd couple road trip with a message of hope set in October through December 1962 as Tony, an Italian American bouncer, played by Mortensen, at the Copacabana needs work while the club is being renovated. Tony ends up becoming the driver for a classical pianist, Don Shirley, played by Ali. Of course, they find common ground despite their racial, socioeconomic differences and become friends. The movie is largely told from Tony’s perspective, which isn’t a surprise since one of the writers and producers is one of Tony’s sons, Nick Vallelonga.
Green Book is an affable movie that would have been relegated exclusively to television movie status if big name, talented actors were not attached to the production, and we weren’t in such turbulent times that certain segments of society actually need the lessons originally taught in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? Black people experience racism. Racism is bad. Black people are people. I guess since we’re grading on a curve lately, bravo! (Jesus wept. We’re doomed if we have to keep reminding people of these lessons then give out cookies when they get it right.)
Green Book can be a pleasurable viewing experience because you get to see a black man tell a white man to do better and boss him around. You get a white man beating up racist people while simultaneously being told by a black man that violence is wrong, which you may miss if your audience was cheering at every moment Tony whooped a racist man’s ass. Basically if you want to end racism in America, assign a vetted white man to every person of color whose family depends on our well being and let him do all the things that we’re not allowed to do without getting in trouble in our defense. (Side note: I’ve never gone that far, but a few well-placed allies or black people that no one can tell that they are black can save you a lot of headaches if you have to deal with some racist and/or sexist person, and those allies and passing without trying black people are willing to take that work off your plate.) Also Shirley apparently was stylish so you get old school glam fierceness throughout the film. Plus watching two great actors parry and play for over two hours at the height of their powers will always be a joy as Ali stretches himself to play a more textured human than Poitier generally got to play, and the Mortenson that we got to know and drool over in The Lord of the Rings trilogy as Aragorn completely disappears into a character that would eat a whole pizza as if it was a sandwich.
I was less thrilled by Green Book’s plot line that Shirley felt exiled from blackness, which, if that was actually his experience, is fine to depict, but was it? He was Jamaican, which I did not know from watching the movie, but found out afterwards. I don’t know enough about him to critique this depiction because it could be true, but I will go on a minor autobiographical tangent. When I was young, I lived in predominantly middle class to affluent white communities in Manhattan and still live in those communities albeit in a different region. My mom adheres to respectability politics extraordinaire and is not from the US, which means that I had seeds of this attitude planted in me. It never sounds racist or self-hating in the way that people cautioned me, but I was taught by my community, including my mother, to stay outside of certain neighborhoods and stay away from certain people, which happened to include a lot of black people. Well, I was born here, and guess what! When I go to the communities that I was warned about, I don’t stick out (as much, if at all) as they do, and black people welcome anyone, but especially black people, which I am a part of. I’m glad that the movie reflected this discovery that I had, but I wonder if it was more a reflection of the well-intentioned writers who feel awkward when they are in the rare position of experiencing what it feels like to be the minority when they are in spaces with more people of color then projecting it on to Shirley.
Green Book’s depiction of Nick is interesting. Obviously his son approved because he helped create the on screen persona, but how do Italian-Americans feel about this depiction, especially since a Dane is playing him? Nick is definitely more complex than he initially appears to be. He isn’t a thug, but getting physical is definitely in his wheelhouse. He is racist though he isn’t as militant as his family and has the ability to correct himself. Was Shirley an exception because of his excellence? The depiction of his comfort level in black spaces and the denouement suggests that it wasn’t. What was fascinating and plausible was how nonplussed he was in the face of other differences as opposed to race. I wasn’t expecting that detour, but once we arrived, I realized that I should have seen it coming, and I wanted a movie about whether or not there was an unofficial Green Book for LGTBQ people.
I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t end on a down note. The point of this tour was to change hearts and minds. Shirley definitely belongs in the annals of greatness for doing something that I would never do for any amount of money and doing it with style and grace, but I hate to say that it did not work. Fast forward to those regions today, and while the formal trappings of segregation may have been torn down, not much else has changed, and we’re in the twenty-first century. Also while I too have experienced the kindness of a cop warning me about having a flat tire and saving my life, you don’t have to be in the deep South to get scared if you get pulled over because you have no idea if you pulled the bad apple so while Green Book was nice, it still has roots in some fictions that we tell ourselves everyday.
See Green Book for the performances and the visual feast. The story is entertaining, and I left knowing more about Dr. Shirley than when I walked in, but if you are not a fan of the actors, and you can’t stomach any of these well worn, but apparently still necessary platitudes, then skip it. People loved it and brought their kids thinking that they were making a difference. Time will tell.
