Green Book has just been added to Netflix in the UK and Ireland, giving you a chance to catch up on the controversial 2019 Oscar Best Picture winner.
The Academy Awards always create a talking point or two. Recent years have seen the Best Picture mix-up of 2017 and the infamous Will Smith slap from 2022, among others, but Green Book's surprise win was one of the most contentious of the past decade (or even more).
It's not just that it beat hot favourite Roma on the night, but for all manner of controversies around the movie.
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In December 2020, star Viggo Mortensen called the backlash against the movie "unreasonable", as well as being "inaccurate, mendacious and irresponsible" and "based on a load of bullshit and an axe to grind".
But now Green Book has landed on Netflix, let's take a look back so you can make your own mind up whether it deserved the controversy or not.
The successes
Directed by one half of Dumb and Dumber's Farrelly brothers, the movie seemed to come out of nowhere during the 2018 festival season to become a serious awards contender.
A bit of context about the movie: it's set in 1962 and "inspired by a true story". The film is named for The Negro Motorist Green Book, a series of guidebooks that listed for African-American travellers the restaurants and hotels that wouldn't refuse them service, and warning of places where they would likely be under threat of arrest or physical violence.
Set against that grim background, shady and definitely racist Italian-American bouncer Tony 'Lip' Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen) accepts a job as a driver for African-American pianist Dr Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), who is embarking on a concert tour of the Deep South. Over the course of their journey, Tony comes to understand Don's situation and stops being so racist, and teaches Don to relax and… er… embrace his blackness, we guess…
It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2018, where it won the People's Choice Award. When the reviews began to arrive, they were generally positive but mixed with a certain amount of discomfort in what some critics considered the dated portrayal of race relations in the movie.
Still, the acclaim continued to roll in. It was named the National Board of Review's Best Film of 2018, and won the Producers Guild of America Award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture and Golden Globe Awards for Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) and Best Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali.
It scored five nominations for the 91st Academy Awards and won three: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Ali) and Best Original Screenplay.
All in spite of an impressive list of controversies...
Viggo and the n-word
The first big controversy came in November 2018 at a panel before a screening of the movie. Discussing the changing face of racism in America, Mortensen dropped the n-word (interestingly, a racial epithet which Green Book tries to avoid).
He quickly apologised in a statement: "As has been made public, I spoke the full n-word when referring to the fact that many people casually used it at the time in which our movie story takes place, in 1962. I did not intend to hurt or offend anyone by speaking the word, but immediately realised that I had inevitably done so, and therefore apologised for having pronounced it."
He promised never to use the word again.
Ali decried the word as "always hurtful" adding that "the use of the word by those who aren’t black, is not up for debate", but said that he accepted Mortensen's apology, understanding the ham-fisted point he was trying to make.
Historical inaccuracy
Not long after that controversy, the family of Dr Shirley released a series of strongly-worded denunciations of Green Book, complaining that it did not accurately portray him or his relationship to Vallelonga, who they claim was never more than an employee to the musician.
The film was co-written by Vallelonga's son Nick – based on interviews with its two principal characters – but without, the Shirley family say, any consultation with them.
His brother, Maurice Shirley, called the film a "symphony of lies", while his nephew, Edwin Shirley III, objected to its portrayal of his uncle as someone "estranged from his family… and the Black community", pointing out that he had been active in the civil rights movement and friends with luminaries including Martin Luther King, Nina Simone and Duke Ellington. What's more, they claimed that Shirley and Vallelonga had never been friends.
They added that Ali had called them and apologised for any offence Green Book caused them, saying he "did the best [he] could with the material" and did not know that any of Shirley's close relatives were still alive.
"I respect the family, I respect Dr Shirley and his family and I wish them well," Ali said after his Golden Globes win.
"I have a job to do and I have to continue to do my job as I move on to my next project and treat everyone I work with with respect. In this case, I didn't know they were around. I made contact and I've spoken to the studio and I have to move on at this point."
Bad behaviour
In January 2019, hot on the heels of its Golden Globe wins, it was the turn of the filmmakers to feel the heat.
Reports resurfaced of Farrelly and actors who had worked with him in the '90s talking about a "joke" he used to pull on the cast of his films – flashing his penis at them.
"True. I was an idiot," he said in a statement (via BBC News). "I did this decades ago and I thought I was being funny and the truth is I’m embarrassed and it makes me cringe now. I’m deeply sorry."
As for Nick Vallelonga, he apologised after a tweet emerged in which he supported Donald Trump's discredited claims about Muslims in Jersey City "cheering" during the September 11 attacks.
But the bad press still wasn’t enough to derail Green Book's Oscar success.
But what about the film's plot?
Green Book falls into the same category as The Help when it comes to its portrayal of racism. It's enjoyable to watch: Ali is brilliant as Shirley in a role that could have been hammy in the hands of another actor, and his chemistry with Mortensen is undeniable. It's not difficult to understand its People's Choice Award win at Toronto.
But like The Help, it is a thoroughly Hollywood-ised narrative that starts to fall apart under scrutiny.
Complaints have been made that this is the sort of conservative exploration of racism (with shades of the dreaded 'white saviour' narrative) that has shown up on film for decades.
Sure, Tony learns not to be a racist (although his transformation – from a monster who throws away glasses because black men drank from them to Shirley's friend who is totally cool with his race and swiftly glossed-over homosexuality – doesn't ring particularly true), but for the sake of 'balance' the film has to show Shirley learning something from his driver. In this case, that's how to eat fried chicken and listen to popular black musicians.
In an era when we have films like Moonlight and 2019 Best Picture Oscar rivals BlacKkKlansman and Black Panther – complex and thought-provoking movies that have something to say about the appalling state of race relations in the 21st century – Green Book's 'racism is bad but we call all learn something from each other' message feels simplistic, if not naïve.
Despite its faults, Green Book is certainly watchable, with its share of amusing and moving moments. But even if we completely overlook the various controversies surrounding it, the idea that this was the best film of 2018 is very hard to swallow.
Green Book is available to watch now on Netflix.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
