Review of Green Book (2018) by Consumerguy — 06 Dec 2018

"This based on a true story" film is an unexpected surprise. Few films are able to combine compelling drama and comedy without stretching one genre or the other. If you had given me a list of one hundred candidates for the role of a semi-educated 1960s nightclub bouncer from the Bronx, I probably would have placed Vigo Mortenson I at the bottom of that list as a likely candidate for the role. And he knocks the role of Tony Lip outta the park. Mahershala Ali, who won an Oscar for his role as the ominous drug dealer in Moonlighting is no less a surprise as the somewhat prissy and bottled-up jazz pianist.

Don Shirley.

In balancing issues of racism and violence with laugh-out-loud humor, director Peter Farrelly is this film's third surprise. Along with brother Bobby, Farrelly is most famous for dopey and base comedies like the "Dumb and Dumber" flicks.

I was amazed by Farrelly's deft handling of transitions that move from Tony's knuckle-headed ignorant insights to the humiliations heaped upon a refined black man in the mid-twentieth century Deep South by hypocritical sophisticates.

Green book is an emotional, artistic and fulfilling gem.