Green Book

It's especially true that one of the best films of the year is signed by a director known to most people for his signature on one of the most successful and demented little films of the last 30 years as "Dummy + Dummy".
Farrely, while maintaining a decidedly light register, shifts his sights on a much more complex story, telling us about the bigoted and racist America of the 60s through an on the road movie as classic as it is successful.

Green Book is a film whose screenplay is very predictable, but this is really the only flaw, if you can talk about a flaw, of the work.
The story is based on a true story and is inspired by the strange and unpredictable friendship that brought together two characters who could not have been more different. The first was an African-American musician, Don, and the second was an Italian-American, all food and street, Tony.

Their paths crossed when Tony momentarily lost his job as a bouncer at New York's "Copa" due to the club's closure while Don was looking for a driver to drive him around the dangerous, black man, south of the United States for a tour. More than a driver, the musician was looking for a man with a thousand talents who could safeguard the interests of the musical trio and at the same time prevent racism from affecting the tournee and his dignity.

2 men diametrically opposed we said and yet it is precisely from whom you least expect it, when you least expect it, that you can find something unique and special, a tolerance, a humanity that does not always manifest itself in the so-called elite. In short, a very topical theme, that of tolerance and integration, which in the background of that America and thanks to that unlikely friendship finds fulfillment with courage and ease.

The title of the film is taken from an incredible and disconcerting reality of those years. A book had been published, a guide called Green Book, in which it was possible to consult all the clubs and hotels that accepted "Negros". The mere fact that such a guide existed gives a perfect idea of how far behind America was in terms of equal opportunities and civil rights.

The film flows between one line and another, effectively dampening dramatic moments and exalting the more intimate moments between the two, but it is in the performances that it finds its highest merit.

Viggo Mortensen and Mahersala Alì present themselves to the test in dazzling form. Strange to say since the first one manifests itself in a roundness never seen before in order to best embody the Tony "Lip" to whom he lends body and soul. A convincing and histrionic performance that projects him among the favorites towards the Oscar race.

For Ali it could be the definitive consecration after the Oscar for Moonlight and the splendid and very recent interpretation in True Detective. He's probably the actor of the year and if he wins the Oscar he'll give yet another proof.

In a cinematic panorama that seems to be short of original ideas this year, it's nice to be able to stop for 2 hours and enjoy a very classic film, recited by God and very well cared for, which launches important messages and leaves a lot to think about, without overdoing it, guiding us step by step to a goal that we should yearn for every day.