I saw Green Book over the holidays because I had a come-to-Jesus moment that despite the warnings and controversies, Hollywood was still going to give awards to this fakakta film. I was right. I was right about all of it. I was right about the film being bad, and I was right about Hollywood falling all over itself to reward this white savior bulls–t. Just in the past month, multiple critics and analysts have detailed why the film is terrible, and then Viggo Mortensen and Peter Farrelly doubled-down by literally silencing black voices to declare that they knew and understood a black man’s experience better.
Well, at the Golden Globes last night, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association decided to give Green Book as many awards as possible. Mahershala Ali won Best Supporting Actor. Green Book won Best Screenplay AND Best Picture, Musical/Comedy. For whatever record, Mahershala does what he can with this role, and I’m choosing to believe that his talent and humanity comes through the terrible white-savior script. But I’m starting to get a pit at the bottom of my stomach about Green Book, that it will be this year’s Three Billboards. By that I mean, Hollywood is all too eager to give awards to films where white racists are the heroes, where they’re “saved” and given all of the humanity. Green Book is All Lives Matter: The Movie.
"the winner is green book" pic.twitter.com/4IHmf2qpY7
— wes (@fashioniconluke) January 7, 2019
great optics for Green Book, a film about race relations in America pic.twitter.com/pJT1um3gy2
— Kathryn VanArendonk (@kvanaren) January 7, 2019
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I saw Green Book last week and while it wasn’t a completely terrible movie it wasn’t good enough to warrent any awards. I was far more interested in Mahershala’s character than in Viggo’s (Mahershala did as best a job with his character as he could but Viggo played a very stereotypical meathead which was offputting) but seeing as the real life son of the Italian character had a hand in writing the script or producing or whatever I can see why it was scewed the way it was.
Viggo is giving the ‘i don’t want to be here’ thumbs up
Hey on the upside, it wasn’t directed by an “alleged” 😒 sex offender….unlike the other winner.
So glad I slept through all of this.
I saw the header and was like, “Oh look, Lindsay Weir.” And then you said the movie was fakakta and I spit out my coffee.
Are you kidding?? This movie was amazing. It was so funny and so moving. Who cares what critics say it’s about personal preference.
Greenbook won the Peoples Choice award at TIFF (Toronto Film Festival). The honor is often a predictor of Academy Award success. Several previous People’s Choice Award winners have gone on to win the best picture Oscar including 12 Years a Slave, The King’s Speech and Slumdog Millionaire.
I enjoyed the movie too, for what it was. This movie was sold as an unlikely friendship between two people of different races and classes – and that’s exactly what it was. The movie never pretended to be some great mediation on race, civil rights, or race relations in America.
The title was all wrong though – they should have went with something other than Green Book since the movie itself had little to nothing to do with the actual Green Book. Speaking of, I’d love to see a movie or documentary that delves into the creation of the Green Book with an in depth look at it’s creation, etc. This movie wasn’t that and it wasn’t pretending to be.
Have you read The Warmth of Other Suns? That’s a powerful one that touches on the history of the Green Books.
I didn’t know why Octavia Spencer was on the stage last night so I looked it up. She was an executive producer. I love Octavia but thought Green Book was just….meh.
As long as Viggo or Peter didn’t win, I’m fine.
No interest in these so called white savior movies. The fact that the family was upset was enough for me not to waste my time.
I thought that the way Mahershala Ali handled the controversy was really well done. It’s difficult when you’re one of the faces and the draws of the movie to balance your criticism of it tbh. I think instead of trying to base it on a real person’s life and falling flat, they could have just come up with original characters instead so that they didn’t have to deal with portraying actual people incorrectly.
The awarded Bohemian Rhapsody as Best Drama, why do we care about the Golden Globes anymore?