GREEN BOOK (2018)

Updated: Apr 25, 2019

RATING: 8/10✅

Comedy/Drama/Biography

New York City bouncer Frank "Tony Lip" Vallelonga is searching for new employment while The Copacabana Night Club, where he works, is closed for renovations. He is invited to an interview with Doctor Don Shirley, an eccentric African American pianist who is looking for a driver for his eight-week concert tour through the Midwest and Deep South. Don hires Tony on the strength of his references. They embark with plans to return to New York on Christmas Eve. Don's record label gives Tony a copy of the Green Book, a guide for African-American travelers to find motels, restaurants, and filling stations that would serve them.

102 NOMINATIONS📽

41 WINS✅

Details:

Directed by: Peter Farrelly.

Produced by: Jim Burke, Brian Hayes Currie, Peter Farrelly, Nick Vallelonga, Charles B. Wessler.

Written by: Nick Vallelonga, Brian Hayes Currie, Peter Farrelly.

Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini.

Music by: Kris Bowers.

Cinematography: Sean Porter.

Edited by: Patrick J. Don Vito.

Production company: Participant Media, DreamWorks Pictures, Innisfree Pictures, Cinetic Media, Alibaba Pictures.

Distributed by: Universal Pictures.

Release date: September 11, 2018.

Running time: 130 minutes.

Country: United States.

Language: English.

Budget: $23 million.

Box office: $312.3 million.

Controversies:

Shirley family reaction

Shirley's relatives condemned the film, stating that they were not contacted by studio representatives until after development, and that it misrepresented Shirley's relationship with his family. Don's brother Maurice Shirley said, "My brother never considered Tony to be his 'friend'; he was an employee, his chauffeur (who resented wearing a uniform and cap). This is why context and nuance are so important. The fact that a successful, well-to-do black artist would employ domestics that did NOT look like him, should not be lost in translation."

Mahershala Ali responded with an apology to Shirley’s nephew Edwin Shirley III, saying that "I did the best I could with the material I had" and that he was not aware that there were "close relatives with whom I could have consulted to add some nuance to the character". Writer-director Peter Farrelly said that he was under the impression that there "weren't a lot of family members" still alive, that they did not take major liberties with the story, and that relatives of whom he was aware had been invited to a private screening for friends and family. Nick Vallelonga, Vallelonga's son, acknowledged that members of the Shirley family were hurt that he did not speak to them, and that he was sorry that they were offended. He told Variety that "Don Shirley himself told me not to speak to anyone" and that Shirley "approved what I put in and didn't put in."

Concerns about depiction of race

The film has been criticized for advancing a white savior narrative in film that perpetuates stereotypes. Salon said the film combines "the white savior trope with the story of a bigot's redemption". Peter Farrelly told Entertainment Weekly that he was aware of the white savior trope before filming and sought to avoid it. He said he had long discussions with the actors and producers on the point, and believes that it was not advanced by the film, saying it is "about two guys who were complete opposites and found a common ground, and it's not one guy saving the other. It's both saving each other and pulling each other into some place where they could bond and form a lifetime friendship."

New York Times writer Wesley Morris characterized Green Book as being a "racial reconciliation fantasy". Morris argues that the film represents a specific style of racial storytelling "in which the wheels of interracial friendship are greased by employment, in which prolonged exposure to the black half of the duo enhances the humanity of his white, frequently racist counterpart". Writing in The Hollywood Reporter, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar noted that "filmmakers are history’s interpreters, not its chroniclers."