"Green Book," new movie about pianist Don Shirley

[Milestones]

I have not seen the film, but I'm interested.

How is it that the guy playing Shirley received the Oscar for Best SUPPORTING Actor?

 

 

[Brad]

11 hours ago, Milestones said:

I have not seen the film, but I'm interested.

How is it that the guy playing Shirley received the Oscar for Best SUPPORTING Actor?

 

 

Oscar politics I suppose as Viggo Mortensen, his co-star, was nominated for Best Actor. 

[JSngry]

I've not seen the movie either, but isn't the movie NOT about Don Shirley, but about the white guy who worked for Don Shirley?

Just in case anybody wants to learn about the book itself, quite apart from the movie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Negro_Motorist_Green_Book

[Rooster_Ties]

I'm really of two minds about this movie.  On the face of it, it's pretty good in a lot of ways, and I did enjoy it.  But it does have a bit of Hollywood simplicity about it - or else maybe the balance of drama and comedy felt too carefully calibrated (equal parts of both, to my recollection).  The acting was somewhere between good and great -- but I just felt like the whole thing needed about 20% more depth to it, or heft, or something.

I was pretty stunned it got Best Picture, but then when you read about the ranked voting process they use (not sure 'ranked voting' is precisely the right term, but it's pretty close), it's NOT great surprise that the movie that got the most votes (even if a great majority of them might have had the film ranked in 3rd place).  Which is to say that any film that really divides people, or just as many people loved as those who were put off by it -- is likely not going to score as well under such a system.

I for one would have much rather seen Roma get best picture myself, but at least Bohemian Rhapsody didn't get it I suppose.

I enjoyed seeing Green Book, but overall I'd give it about a solid B+ (at best), though all the performances in it were all enjoyable, and well performed.  Still, for me, it seemed to be just a little too Hollywood for its own good.