Rent Green Book (2018)
4.0 of 5 from 1443 ratings
2h 4min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- When Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen), a bouncer from an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx, is hired to drive Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), a world-class Black pianist, on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South, they must rely on "The Green Book" to guide them to the few establishments that were then safe for African-Americans. Confronted with racism, danger as well as unexpected humanity and humor - they are forced to set aside differences to survive and thrive on the journey of a lifetime.
- Actors:
- Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini, Sebastian Maniscalco, Dimiter D. Marinov, Mike Hatton, P.J. Byrne, Joe Cortese, Maggie Nixon, Von Lewis, Jon Sortland, Don Stark, Anthony Mangano, Paul Sloan, Quinn Duffy, Seth Hurwitz, Hudson Galloway, Gavin Lyle Foley, Rodolfo Vallelonga, Louis Venere
- Directors:
- Peter Farrelly
- Producers:
- Jim Burke, Brian Hayes Currie, Nick Vallelonga, Charles B. Wessler, Peter Farrelly
- Writers:
- Nick Vallelonga, Brian Hayes Currie, Peter Farrelly
- Others:
- Brian Currie, Charles B. Wessler, Jim Burke, Patrick J. Don Vito
- Studio:
- EntertainmentOne
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Drama
- Collections:
- 10 Films to Watch If You Liked One Night in Miami..., 2019, Award Winners, BAFTA Nominations Competition 2024, CinemaParadiso.co.uk Through Time, Films by Genre, Films to Watch If You Like..., Oscar Nominations Competition 2023, Oscar Nominations Competition 2024, Oscar's Two-Time Club, Oscars: Winners & Losers, Remembering Gena Rowlands, The Best American Road Movies, The Biggest Oscar Snubs: Part 2, The Instant Expert's Guide, The Instant Expert's Guide to Spike Lee, Top 10 Best Picture Follow-Ups, Top Films, What to Watch Next If You Liked Nomadland
- Awards:
2019 BAFTA Best Supporting Actor
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 10/06/2019
- Run Time:
- 129 minutes
- Languages:
- English Audio Description, English Dolby Atmos, English Dolby Digital 2.0
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 2.00:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Virtuoso Performances
- An Unforgettable Friendship
- Going Beyond the 'Green Book'
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- Unknown
- Run Time:
- 130 minutes
- Languages:
- English Dolby Atmos, French DTS 5.1
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing, French, Spanish
- DVD Regions:
- Region 2
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 2.00:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Virtuoso Performances
- An Unforgettable Friendship
- Going Beyond 'The Green Book'
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Reviews (30) of Green Book
OK maybe it is a bit trite.... but it's still a belting film! - Green Book review by PR
...made so by both lead actors putting in an excellent performance. Apart from the odd twist the plot is predictable but it's no less enjoyable for that. To the critics who say it deals with 60's racism in the States in a glossy superficial way. Ok. Fair enough. But what we always seem to forget is that first and foremost a film is meant to entertain. A film that doesn't do that, on at least some level, is never going to get anywhere. And then you'd never even get the debate...
15 out of 16 members found this review helpful.
Superb - Green Book review by JD
Please don’t be put off by some of the inaccurate and bigoted reviews posted here.
This is a superb movie and well worth all the awards and oscars it has been given.
Set in 1962 it depicts a sad period in America’s treatment of racism in the Southern States.
The acting by both the lead actors is superb, but many or the smaller parts are very good too.
Great atmosphere where the old cars, concert halls and landscapes feature strongly, but it is the relationship between the driver and the concert pianist that makes this such a memorable film.
One of the best movies I have seen in this or any year.
12 out of 12 members found this review helpful.
Thoroughly entertaining. - Green Book review by KH
Entertaining film based on a true story. Ignore the low scoring negative reviews because Im not even sure if they watched the whole film.
7 out of 8 members found this review helpful.
Critic review
Green Book review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso
The most infamous and hilarious scene of Green Book, at least according to the boomer audience that gravitates towards such soapy pictures, features fried chicken. The cocky white driver and the rigid black passenger in the back seat dine on this lunch from a bucket. The black man remarks he’s not familiar with eating fried chicken and is informed by the white man that you eat it with your hands and toss the bones out the window. In order for this scene to be funny, however, the black man would have to be from another dimension and not the south.
The passenger is Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), a pianist on a concert tour. Of course, being a black pianist during the 1960s is a tough road. Many places around the midwest banned black people from entering, noted in the green book. But this film is not about Shirley so much as it is about his driver Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen). Tony is a racist bouncer with a brash attitude that clashes with Don’s more strict and tight-lipped professionalism. Squint long enough and their pairing on this cross-country music tour will seem more like a buddy comedy and less like a white savior movie.
Green Book is a very tempting kind of white savior movie with the conflicting direction of comedy director Peter Farrelly. The chemistry between Don and Tony is staged to place them more as an odd couple; Tony is filthy while Don is clean. In doing so, however, Peter’s film slides far too uncomfortably into the fluffy narrative of the white savior. Issues of racism and even the interesting angle of the green book itself are glazed over for all the familiar beats. A bunch of racist white guys will try to harass Don for poking his head where he doesn’t belong. But, look, here comes Tony to save the day. Maybe Tony isn’t such a racist after all. Maybe he and Don can be friends. Maybe racism can be solved in the 1960s.
It’s easy enough to see why many older white audiences favor such a film. It never takes a hard look at the racism of this time and instead weaves a microcosm of solving one of issue of a black and white guy getting along. The whole story is staged to be sweet and nostalgic with a sincere appeal to buddies conquering their racial divide. It’s also bereft of insight, warping just enough of the true story to never be uncomfortable for the white crowd and the dishonest to the family of Don who has denounced the film.
I can’t deny that I enjoyed the performances of Mahershala and Viggo who undeniably have chemistry. But to what end is their buddy comedy serving? What does such a picture offer that numerous other white savior pictures haven’t already delivered before? The Seth Meyers segment from his talk show that directly parodies white savior movies is so on the nose it's amazing how many of these films continue to pollute that market of historical drama. This is a film that talks about racism but never REALLY talks about racism. How else can we laugh at this comedy?
This is why it’s so hard to just switch off the brain and accept Green Book as the comedy so many aged moviegoers adore so well. It’s built so stock to appeal to this crowd of racism-ignoring white people that it was safe enough to be both nominated and win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Compared with the more visceral racial picture of Spike Lee’s BlackKKklansman also being nominated, Green Book is woefully behind the times and yet giving the edgy white audience exactly what they want; an easy to digest picture where we never have to think more about the story with the exception of the funny scene where the guys eat chicken. The film is perhaps is best summed up in a Saturday Night Live bit where a talk show host says to a faux Mahershala that he had issues with the ending of fried chicken. Mahershala corrects him that the scene was not the end of the movie. “Well, it was for me.”