Green Book

Awesome acting. Academy Award winner for best picture.

My husband and I really enjoyed this movie. It’s based on a true story.

This is a poignant story relating the discrimination African Americans faced in the South before civil rights acts happened. A talented Black piano player goes on a concert tour of the South being totally accepted as a talented performer by the upper white class but not allowed partake of the same kind of daily life like eating at a whites only restaurant or staying in a whites only hotel, and sadly not even being able to use indoor white only restrooms. Along this journey he is accompanied by his driver who is lower class white from a poor neighborhood in NYC. Its a journey of life for these two and it makes for quite the story. Theres sadness and humor in their journey and lessons are learned by both men. Its thoroughly entertaining and extremely well acted. I believe this movie got many Oscars nominations including a nod for best picture. Its a great movie in my opinion.

As I said highly recommend everyone to watch this movie from start to finish. 5☆s all the way to the bank.

I like it all.

Amazing actors and based on real people.

Green Book will be notable in movie history if for no other reason than being the 2018 Best Picture winner at the Oscars. I stopped watching the Oscars years ago because they seem to delight in choosing the obscure or films that kowtow to popular fads, but Green Book is one of the rare exceptions that the Oscars got right. This film is the shared story of two disparate characters. The first is Don Shirley, an gifted African-American pianist, trained in Russia, connoisseur of languages, with an apartment above Carnegie Hall. The other was Tony Vallelonga, a rough-and-tumble Italian-American bouncer with connections to organized crime and a tremendous capacity to eat. When Shirley decides to undertake a tour of the Deep South in the early 1960s, he knows he will need protection. On the other hand, the nightclub Tony works at is closed for repairs and he needs a job for the next few months. After interviewing multiple people for the position of chauffeur, bodyguard, and bagman, Don eventually decides to hire Tony. At the beginning of their journey, there is a significant amount of friction between the two. Don is highly cultured, while Tony is salt of the earth; more notably, being of two different races leads Tony to make some insensitive, albeit not malicious, comments. Soon enough, however, Tony helps Don get out of tough situations and they bond. Some of the best scenes in the film are when Don performs. The piano work was actually done by Kris Bowers, but Mahershala Ali carries himself with confidence as he mimics the movements. Despite his obvious talent, Don is never fully accepted by white society. As Don himself notes, he feels too white to fit into black society and too black to join white society. This internal conflict reaches an emotional resolution in one of the final scenes of the film. There has been some criticism from Don Shirleys family that the film whitewashes aspects of his life. Leaving aside the question of whether Shirley was estranged from his kin (I get the impression he was), no story is able to incorporate every single perspective. Tony Vallelonga clearly held Don Shirley in high regard and viewed him as a friend, an attitude many white people fifty years ago were incapable of. More importantly, even if the story were entirely fictional, I think it offers a valuable lesson that we as human beings can learn from others whose experiences (and hence their perspectives) are different from our own. If nothing else, the film acquainted me with Don Shirley, who I had never heard of before, but whose music I now own on vinyl. The moments of levity, drama, and musical virtuosity in this film make it a great way to pass an evening. I highly recommend that everyone take the time to enjoy the performances of Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen.

Loved it, Great movie!

I enjoyed this movie because it is filled with real life experiences! While the story is simple, it paints a beautiful portrait of two men, polar opposites, who bond and become lifelong friends exhibiting respect for each other, despite their obvious flaws! This film offers viewers a glimpse of what interpersonal relationships can result, if we just listed to someone else! Bravo to all involved in creating this screen gem!

This is a heartwarming, informative and motivating story. It can help us all learn that we are more alike than different.