It’s 1962. Italian-American bodyguard Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen) is employed by black musician Dr Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) to drive him on a tour of the Southern states, and avoid trouble. Easier said than done…
This year’s hot topic is race relations, with BlacKkKlansman and Black Panther also tackling the issues faced by black people across history. For me, Green Book is the most successful at dissecting it. It particularly targets the hypocrisy of many white people in that they admire the talents of black people, but will quite happily avoid giving them a true helping hand. Don Shirley plays to sell-out performances of white people from Trump-heavy states such as South Carolina and Mississippi, and to great success. But whilst he is hailed as a “guest of honour” by these people, he is still not allowed to dine in the same restaurants or use the same toilets.
It’s true that there is a certain predictability to this buddy-buddy road movie. Both men start off not seeing eye-to-eye and it is no spoiler to say that, due to an escalating series of events and adventures, they both learn new things about living a good life from each other. The plot doesn’t have the same unexpected twists and turns of last year’s Three Billboards or this year’s The Favourite. Nonetheless, the lessons they learn are food for thought, as the film dissects how one should go about making a stand against society’s abominable racism. Should we resort to battle like Tony claims, or maintain dignity and stoicism like Don?
Green Book also boasts phenomenal performances from Mortensen and Ali, especially the latter who thoroughly deserves a second Best Supporting Actor award. It’s a great piece of character acting and he’s rapidly become an actor to look out for. This is a poignant, thoughtful and fascinating film, regardless of the controversies that have arisen around it.
Mark: 9/10
Doug says...
As Paul says, this is the third of this year’s films dealing with black oppression across history. I also agree that this is the strongest, thanks to its willingness to embrace humour as well as pathos and tragedy. Mahershala Ali does outstanding work as the educated, occasionally snooty Dr Don Shirley. It’s a performance that constantly surprises - for example in moments when he becomes angry, we see the careful elocution of his words slightly drop away, the sense that this is a man who has trained himself to be elegant, actively stepping away from hurtful stereotypes that abound.
I particularly loved the motif of dinners and food throughout. Tony Lip (Mortensen in a hearty, invigorating performance) constantly munches throughout, including folding a pizza in half and taking a massive bite. We see them share food in the car, and then also see Shirley barely tolerated at dinner, where the hosts have ‘asked the help what Dr Don might like to eat’, and in another place flat out refused to be served. The film culminates neatly with Shirley welcome at (in fact enthusiastically entreated to join) Tony’s family dinner, Tony’s wife hugging Shirley in thanks for all he’s done for her husband. Food as a connection and sign of love is often used through culture and here it’s very successful.
It’s warming, while not becoming chocolate box-y, and it avoids binary comparisons. A policeman in the backwards South tries to convince his colleagues not to be awful, while black workmen in the liberal North still garner suspicious looks. And it ends on a note of hope. The film has been critiqued for not being strictly adherent to the truth, but I’d counter with asking why we expect cinema to be akin to history textbooks. This is excellent storytelling, with wonderful performances.
Mark: 8/10
Roma plot intro
A year in the life of an indigenous-Mexican housekeeper, Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) who cares for a family headed by heartbroken matriarch, Sofia (Marina de Tavira).
Paul says...
Here’s the “Phantom Thread” of the year, but unlike Phantom Thread this is a whole lot stronger. It’s filmed in a documentary manner, with the camera often sitting in the corner of the room panning back and forth at the events before us. This provides us with a fly-on-the-wall view of life in 1970s Mexico, which allows us to see the events transpire through small events and comments that occur out of the corner of our eye.
This extremely artistic format doesn’t always work, as it detaches the audience from the action. Granted, this could be director Alfonso Cuaron’s intention (it’s based on his own upbringing in Mexico City), but I kept wishing for some more hard-hitting camera work when Cleo gives birth to a still-born, or is held at gun-point by her baby’s father who has become a revolutionary, or when she saves two of her employer’s children from drowning in the sea. This slow, ponderous and emotionally-detached tone may have the Academy reeling with excitement, but it may prevent the film from appealing to regular audiences.
Despite these misgivings from me, Roma is a frontrunner for winning Best Picture. This and The Favourite have the most nominations and if either Aparicio or Tavira were to win the acting awards they are nominated for, I would be very happy- they’re both outstandingly nuanced and real. Roma is beautifully shot, with some stunning cinematography. But it probably needed more indulgence in drama to give it universal appeal. I mean, there’s one bit where a man dressed as some kind of Mexican folklore monster sings in front of a forest fire. What the hell is that all about?!
Mark: 6/10
Doug says...
A slow-moving black and white film entirely in Spanish dialects with very little plot does not sound thrilling. And indeed Roma isn’t thrilling. But it is captivating. Alfonso Cuaron has made this as a labour of love: writing, directing, shooting and editing it himself. Yalitza Aparicio has never acted before, and yet underpins the entire film with a quiet, peaceful serenity. It’s an astonishing performance, and supporting her is Marina de Tavira as her employer, in a brittle and beautifully observed turn.
I love this film for its jigsaw feel. We see fragments of their lives and put it together to realise what’s happening. The husband is cheating and eventually an abandoner. We see Cleo’s understated passion for an (eventually worthless) man. We realise quite how loved and central Cleo is to the whole family. I thought at first it would be a hard tale of how abused she was - but really we see that she is integral, and loved. Sofia drives Cleo to the hospital; Sofia’s mother takes Cleo shopping for baby furniture. The children flock around her, pulling her into their lives, their arms around her neck as they all watch television. We see she works hard, but we also see the value she brings, and their appreciation of her.
Film wise, this is gorgeously shot. A scene where Sofia, drunk, drives the too-big car into the garage, crashing it against walls is hilarious and also somehow meaningful. It’s filled with symbolism - aeroplanes constantly fly overhead, simultaneously symbols of freedom and also the other worlds that Cleo will probably never visit. We see the Corpus Christi Massacre shot through a shop window in a panning, devastating take. And it leaves one with a melancholy feel, as if this world is a by-gone one we could have known. For Cuaron, of course, it is - and everything he does here makes the viewer feel that it is somehow our history too, filling us with a sense of longing for a past we never had.
Mark: 10/10
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