SilentDawn’s review published on Letterboxd:
75
Everyone is allotted one Forrest Gump in their lives. This is mine.
Almost entirely based in lies, notions of misconstruing blackness, in addition to plain ole' white savior bullshit. Green Book is embarrassing. And yet, it is, against my better judgement and every fiber of my being as a socially-conscious viewer, immensely watchable, with two tremendous performances at the forefront and handsomely told. Sean Porter's DP work is gorgeous. Mahershala Ali offers a universe of emotion via a shift in posture, a lowering of the head. And Viggo Mortensen is hilarious, always shoving food in his mouth, and when he's not, spouting off on race relations like he's the expert on what black people are supposed to listen to and eat. His baffoon, dumbass racist caricature is supremely physical, and phenomenal as a lived-in personality, always knowing how and when to react to Ali's movements and character traits. It's an unspoken dialogue that relates back to Dumb and Dumber in the Farrelly canon, but with a christmas-ticking-clock rather than a briefcase macguffin. Great music, great food, ends on a heartwarming note all while ignoring the prominent issues at its heart so the target white audience won't get offended - the gang's all here. But alas, reader, I laughed in spite of the warning sirens (that KFC scene I made fun of *before* I saw the movie? arguably just as bad as I feared). And Linda Cardellini has one hell of a smile.