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Calm Down. ‘Green Book’ Isn’t So Bad
Oscar’s divisive Best Picture isn’t the travesty everyone says it is.
I have a confession to make that probably won’t win me a lot of love in the aftermath of the Academy Awards’ latest most egregious Best Picture coronation ever: I liked Green Book.
Did I think it was the best film of 2018? Not even close. My favorite was BlacKkKlansman, which like Pulp Fiction vs. Forrest Gump nearly a quarter of a century ago, had to settle for a lone screenplay Oscar. Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Eighth Grade, First Reformed, and The Kindergarten Teacher scored zero Oscars combined, and I preferred all four to Green Book.
It wasn’t even 2018's second-best movie about race. That honor goes to If Beale Street Could Talk. So yeah, the Academy missed the mark by a Green mile this time, but I still enjoyed director Peter Farrelly’s comedy-drama. A lot.
Much of my enjoyment came from the character that won Mahershala Ali his second Best Supporting Actor Oscar in three years. Whether he has a little, a lot, or nothing in common with the real-life Don Shirley, who died in 2013, I identified with him in a way I didn’t relate to any other character played by a 2019 Oscar nominee, even the six other LGBTQ ones.
