Episode 105 - Green Book

The controversial 2018 film "Green Book" that just won the
Academy Award for Best Picture has it all: a white-savior
narrative, cheesy New York Italian-American accents, and a series
of cringeworthy tone-deaf scenes that aim to solve racism, but
end up being more racist themselves in the end.


Farrelly brother Peter directed this unfunny Oscar-bait that
apparently either warmed the hearts of all the old white Academy
members or was just the perfect anti-Netflix movie to pick so
"Roma" wouldn't win. Often compared to "Driving Miss Daisy," it's
actually more like "The Bodyguard," "The Odd Couple" and "Planes,
Trains and Automobiles."


Very not-Italian-looking Viggo Mortensen plays Frank "Tony Lip"
Vallelonga, an almost-illiterate, mobbed-up thug who uses
violence to solve all of his problems. This movie paints him as a
loving family man who will do anything to support them, when in
reality he's an awful racist grifter who would never change his
attitudes on a dime just because he hung out with one black
person for a few weeks.


Mahershala Ali plays Dr. Don Shirley (in a role he won an Best
Supporting Actor Oscar for), a lonely genius pianist who hires
Tony Lip as his bodyguard/driver so he doesn't get messed with
while on tour in the 1962 Jim Crow American South. Though every
time Tony saves him from trouble, he flips out like a baby for no
reason.


Linda Cardellini plays Dolores Vallelonga, the doting wife stock
character who seems to be the only non-racist member of her
entire family.


There’s even supporting characters played by cheesy standup
comedian Sebastian Maniscalco and the guy who played Donna's dad
on "That '70s Show."


Join us as we wonder how many times Nick Vallelonga (the main
character’s real-life son) watched "GoodFellas" while writing
this movie, as we make fun of Steven Spielberg's recent
anti-streaming services comments, as we talk about how Paul
Walker doesn't get enough grief for dating a 15 year old, and as
we wonder if Mahershala Ali is secretly embarrassed this movie
won him a second Oscar.


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shooting us an email over at mailbag@filmsnuff.com.


This episode is sponsored by Michelob Ultra Pathetic.


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