Sort of an inverted Driving Ms. Daisy, Green Book is inspired by the true story of white Bronxite Frank Anthony Vallelonga Sr. (Viggo Mortensen) driving black jazz pianist Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) on a concert tour of the segregated south in 1962. The movie hits all the notes one would expect from a movie of this type, personal understanding arrived at through road trip, but is saved from being completely trite by the strength of the lead performances. I wasn't expecting much going in but the movie won me over, it is well enough executed but hardly groundbreaking stuff. The fact that we still kind of need a movie like this, where a white guy learns that racism is bad, well that's kind of sad. ***1/2
Oh yeah, a Green Book was a guide book for African American road trippers, with information on which restaurants, hotels ect would welcome black travelers.
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