Film
Green Book
- Director
- Peter Farrelly
- Certificate
- 12A
- Running Time
- 130 mins
There’s Something About Mary director Peter Farrelly‘s first awards season contender sets out to push those buttons marked ‘funny’, ‘uplifting’ and ‘heartwarming’ as it does the Driving Miss Daisy thing in reverse.
Set in 1962, it’s the true-ish story of African-American concert pianist Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) who hires grouchy Italian-American nightclub bouncer Anthony “Tony Lip” Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen) to act as his chauffeur during a two-week concert tour of the segregated south. You don’t need the ever-protective BBFC to warn you that “discriminatory behaviour” will be experienced along the way as their unlikely friendship develops. This certainly proved unthreatening enough to bag plenty of awards, though criticism has also come thick and fast from those who see it as a regressive white saviour film with Shirley assuming the role of the ‘magical negro’ whose function is to solve white people’s problems. Perhaps more damagingly, the late pianist’s family have dismissed Green Book colourfully as “a symphony of lies”. Go here for our review.
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
