"Green Book" by Peter Farrelly The movie that could claim the 2019 Oscar

It’s a few days that it’s out, but everybody’s talking about it. Many people think that it may be this year’s Oscar winner (for whom it has already 5 nominations, like the ones for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor). Green Book is the new film by Peter Farrelly – with three times Academy Award nominated Viggo Mortensen and Academy Award winner Mahersala Ali – and it’s definitely the trend of this season – so hot to even shade the long-waited Suspiria by Luca Guadagnino.

The biggest complaint is that the film has been directed by a white director, the head behind some of the most hilarious comedies of our century (There’s Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber): that’s why many critics claim that this film is narrated by a white-savior perspective, suggesting that Don Shirley has been painted as a “gentle” black man who pleases the white supremacy (and that sadly reminds us of the O.J. Simpson case). But… is it true? The director says no. Even some of the producers (as Octavia Spencer) deny it. But most of all: is this controversy enough to shade the social matter of the film? When all is said and done, Green Book it’s terrific.
It’s a road movie that manages to go over the race-card itself, and that’s pretty cool. And nobody can deny that this time somewhere in the past frighteningly speaks for our present. In a cultural landscape that has lost its willing to dare, Green Book does not dare – and certainly will not make a difference. Maybe it’s just a perfect movie: a home-made test that deserves an A+. “A genre-film”. But since when you can’t find beauty in perfection? With or without its controversies, you can’t lose it. It’s basically a moral issue. Nobody will be dismissed.

Green Book premiered at the Toronto Toronto International Film Festival on September 11th 2018 and is out in the USA since November, 21th 2018. In Italy is distributed by Eagle Pictures. In cinemas from Thursday, January 31.