Green Book (2018)

    This week, I decided to watch a movie called Green Book. I chose this movie because I found out that it has won countless awards and titles for its detail and acting, so I wanted to check it out. This movie has one of the most interesting introductory scenes I have ever seen, which immediately sparked my interest and kept me entertained throughout the whole movie. What I really admired about this movie was the creativeness of the characters. While it was based on a true story, the directors found a way to enhance the lives of the main characters to keep them interesting and exciting. The main character, Tony Vallelonga, more commonly known as Tony Lip, was one of the most complex characters I have ever witnessed in my life. While he seems like an Italian from the Bronx in the 1960s, he spends the movie breaking out of his comfort zone to become much more than that. His boss, Don Shirley played by Mahershala Ali, won a lot of high praise and awards for his performance in this movie. While the two main characters were vastly different people, they managed to create an amazing relationship based on their very few similarities 

     Tony and Don were about as opposites as it gets, so a lot of the movie was their arguments and disagreements. What I really appreciated about this movie that I thought was unique were the risks that the director took to make it the best movie possible. While racism was a huge part of the movie, it felt like it was a particularly good portrayal of how African-Americans were treated in the working class. Don Shirley was an African American man who wanted to travel to the deep south to play piano concerts. Of course, he needed a driver to take him around the road. Tony had grown a reputation in town as being a loyal bodyguard who knew how to fight. He worked at a lot of nightclubs, so he had a lot of connections to high valued Italians. Tony did not have very much money at all, so much so that he had to bet someone that he could eat 26 hotdogs in one sitting to earn fifty dollars for the rent. Don Shirley, however, was very wealthy. He lived in a beautiful apartment above Carnegie concert hall, so when tony went there for the job interview, he was surprised to see a black man. 

     Tony had to really adjust to being around an African American, mostly because he was very stubborn with his views on them. When Tony told his wife that he was colored, she instantly said that “you wouldn't last a week with him.” It took Tony the entirety of the movie, although after seeing Don treated so poorly in the deep south, he has started to understand racism on a deeper level. This movie will make you experience a lot of different emotions throughout its entirety. For example, I laughed, got sad, excited, and even conflicted while the movie transitioned through the scenes. This is one of the best movies I have ever seen, so I would recommend watching Green Book to anyone that wants to be entertained for a while.