Green Book

"Driving Mr. Mahershala"? Too bad that Viggo had to fight Rami Malek for the Oscar, as the jury couldn’t give it to anyone else but Rami. Here, Viggo put on a remarkable performance, just like in Eastern Promises. Mahershala is also great. The movie itself, however, is a dime-a-dozen Hollywood template, with a good heart and gorgeous narrative but without a hint of filmmaking inventiveness. (06/03/2019)

An overly calculated and sure-footed Oscar-winning film that ticks off the likely situations to come, and they do come, including the pathetic ending. But the dialogues between Tony and Shirley are hilariously written, there's a great spark between them and I laughed my heart out at times. Viggo plays my peer, always eating like me, getting a pot belly like me, just cute. I'd like him to win an Oscar, more than Rami "look-at-my-brutal-attempt" Malek, and more than Ali, who to me is an actor of one expression. (02/08/2019)

It’s been a long time since I saw a dramatic comedy by American authors that would involve such great acting performances (Viggo is fantastic and Mahershala delivers a decent above-par performance), a great to amazing atmosphere, real friendship between men and moments in which I simply admired both gentlemen’s acting, watching the slightest movements of their faces. Even those alone could tell you a lot about the situation and help you form a well-rounded opinion on what was going on in the USA in the 1960s. The American people are truly absurd and this year’s Oscar ceremony provided a proof of that in form of two movies – this one and the BlackKklansman. An A+ from me for sure. Just keep it up! Self-criticism is important and it is really good that it’s being opened up in the world beyond the Big Pond. On top of that, I’m really glad that Peter Farrelly’s work was rewarded as well because when do you get the chance to win an Oscar if under other circumstances you are making wacky comedies with your brother that are commercially successful and every now and then you pull a prank on somebody and pull your wiener out at a casting interview: Naturally to ease up the situation. In the overall context this is great and congrats on that. Finally, after a really long time a movie was given the Oscar that I was rooting for with my entire heart. (25/02/2019)

The incredibly simple, flat story, is saved from my sheer hatred (which I felt for the idiotic racial jumble The Help) by humor, and by the fact that it’s so stupid and stupider that there is no way it will offend you. The themes of tolerance and self-acceptance do not make much sense. The film, like a forged midcult, avoids everything that is even slightly problematic (or looks at it helplessly as a doctor looking at working nurses), and it always finds a way to get away from it. If I wanted to play at being Žižek, I would see an extraordinary tragedy about how two people help to create a fake version of themselves (supposedly better, yet totally a lie for the person watching). Farrelly's directing is about as progressive as the filter his cameraman uses, but one thing that he has is almost ingenious - the cast. The two idiots are so nice and relaxed that it's hard not to enjoy it for a while. They can convince most people that this film is not as hollow as it seems. Burn after reading. (06/03/2019)

Miss Daisy's driver upside down. A nice, sadly funny and non-conflicting humanly warm film on a serious topic. Just saying nothing that other similarly nice, sadly funny and non-conflicting humanly warm images wouldn't have said already with an equally nice, sadly funny and non-conflicting humanly warm taste. It's not an average movie just because of the working dynamics of the central duo; even if one has to get used to Mortensen in “a true Italian almost parody mode". (27/01/2019)

If someone had told me at the beginning of the year that the best film would be a road movie drama with Oscar ambitions, I would have laughed them off, but hats off to them, this is a cinematic gem next to which Forrest Gump and The Shawshank Redemption look like B-movies. Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali deliver superhuman performances and their chemistry is flawless. The film pulls up a lot with tasteful and apt humour, the mafia undertones and the strong racism of the time. There are tense scenes and, most importantly, emotions, where I found myself crying for maybe two whole hours at a stretch and that never happened in my life. After watching it, I immediately got the feeling that I had to see the film again with everyone close to me and that doesn't happen often. The event of the year and for me possibly the best drama ever. 100%. (07/02/2019)

So I wanted to see what kind of movie blew my Oscar favorites away. If it wasn't for that, it probably would have passed me by and by next year I wouldn't even remember they ever made anything like it. So thank you, Oscars! Green Book entertained me from the very beginning to the very end. Largely because of the subject matter and the actors, and also because I have a soft spot for movies about true friendship. And this one moved me incredibly deeply. 2018 has brought me some great films, this one being one of them. It's beautiful, 5 stars. (04/05/2019)

Well-deserved Oscars. A classic about friendship dressed up in Southern hospitality. Of course, it’s seeped in racism, but it’s never so much that it matters. Mortensen and Ali are wonderful together. A feelgood movie. (01/03/2019)

If American Beauty offered a sophisticated, often subtle and graceful critique of the American middle class, Green Book, in a similarly bittersweet vein, presents the issues of racism in 1960s America, unassumingly, without relying on pathos, witty and with just enough insight. Viggo Mortensen dominates with his De Niro accent and redneck diction, Ali got the Oscar because he's black. For a film that is mostly about the interaction of two characters, it is brisk, fresh and entertaining. (03/03/2019)

An easygoing road-movie with strong characters (Mortensen steals the show), a convincing period atmosphere, and dialogues that don’t hurt, at least to watch once. But the “conflict” that the film offers is so unoriginal and fake that it buries the quality of the whole lot. The development of Tony’s racist views are almost invisible and the script is basically a series of stops at moral clichés and shoddy motifs (the cop on the road, the “white” restaurant). There was potential and I can praise Farrelly for the fact that I rooted for protagonists, but that’s not enough to make an above-par social drama. 60% (25/01/2019)

This is a pleasant Christmas fairy tale. This type of drama-comedy, where two people from different walks of life are forced to learn from each other and rethink their attitudes, is probably always a sure-fire hit. It seems quite superficial and there is no real drama in the whole movie, however, it is still an all-around positive and relaxing movie with the great Viggo Mortensen, whose third Oscar nomination I would like to finally change into an actual award. (07/02/2019)

The Green Book relies mainly on a well-written script and the acting skills of the leading duo of Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali, and I have to admit that it works very well indeed. They are contrasted by Tony, a fat man eater who’s always ready for a punch or a dirty word, and Don, an artist-intellectual who likes peace, order and a good bottle of booze. These two opposites embark on a long journey across the America, unaware that this ride will change their lives. Though the film is designed to attack the Academy on its own merits, it is still written and acted in an exceedingly likeable way that you take the eye-rolling Oscar-bait with open arms and let yourself ride on a wave of prejudice, fights, music, food and, above all, true friendship for two hours. All the Oscars are spot on and it's a shame Viggo was up against Rami Malek, who was simply assured of the golden statuette. (27/02/2019)

I barely noticed that the film was more than two hours long. I enjoyed the Green Book from start to finish, but I would not recommend it to action film fans. My biggest concern was that it would be a typical lament over the fate of black people, which I’m starting to get sick of, but Dr. Shirley balanced all that with his own prejudices, which deprived me of any opportunity or urge to criticize the creators for pandering, and I could just enjoy the ride. I enjoyed the performances of Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen, and I enjoyed the whole story which clearly demonstrated who oversees world democracy and teaches us how to treat minorities. (08/03/2019)

Let's be honest, the "Oscar quality" of Green Book is drawing to a great extent from contemporary socio-political discourse. I don't mean to diminish the film's qualities at all, but one has to consider that in the 90s, perhaps, Green Book probably wouldn't have so much as breached the Oscars. It also kind of seems to me that Peter Farrelly chose this theme quite superficially with a view to that contemporary social climate, where any similarly themed film is automatically sold as something special and important for today's society. In other words, the theme of segregation and racism is interpreted in this film in an incredibly shallow way, which in the end takes a heavy toll on its value. In terms of the filmmaking and acting, however, it is a very stylish affair, which the filmmakers certainly relied on, and the overall impression actually rises and falls on the interaction and mutual "character enrichment" of the central duo. Rather than being a film about racism, Green Book is a kind of a feel-good (road) movie, in which the subject of racism is handled with kid gloves, lest anyone happen to be too offended. A bit of an embarrassing 4 stars. (17/03/2019)