Green Book

"Inspired by a True Friendship."

2018 2h 10m EN

🙌

8.2

BANGER

★8.2TMDB · 13,334

DramaComedyHistory

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Tony Lip, a bouncer in 1962, is hired to drive pianist Don Shirley on a tour through the Deep South in the days when African Americans, forced to find alternate accommodations and services due to segregation laws below the Mason-Dixon Line, relied on a guide called The Negro Motorist Green Book.

“Inspired by a True Friendship.”

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Cast

Viggo Mortensen
Tony Lip
Mahershala Ali
Dr. Don Shirley
Linda Cardellini
Dolores
Sebastian Maniscalco
Johnny Venere
Dimiter D. Marinov
Oleg
Mike Hatton
George
P.J. Byrne
Record Exec
Joe Cortese
Gio Loscudo

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Peter Farrelly
Writers: Brian Hayes Currie, Nick Vallelonga, Peter Farrelly
Languages: English, Italian, Russian
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $322M — a 14.0× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 8 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Italian, Russian.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CAST

Did you know

209+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Peter Farrelly, shot by Sean Porter. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Kris Bowers. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Patrick J. Don Vito shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali and Linda Cardellini carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Peter Farrelly directs. Sean Porter behind the camera. Kris Bowers scores. Patrick J. Don Vito cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Italian, Russian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Grossed $322M — a 14.0× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
2Released 8 years ago.
3Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Italian, Russian.
4209+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
5Directed by Peter Farrelly, shot by Sean Porter. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Kris Bowers. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Patrick J. Don Vito shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali and Linda Cardellini carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Inspired by a True Friendship.".
10IMDB entry: tt6966692 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
1113,334 TMDB user ratings logged — serious cultural footprint.
12Classified under 14 themes, including "friendship", "southern usa", "based on true story", "road trip".
13Released under 10 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Sean Porter
Original score: Kris Bowers
Editing: Patrick J. Don Vito
Production design: Tim Galvin
Costume design: Betsy Heimann
Makeup / hair: Tarra D. Day
VFX supervisor: Victor DiMichina
Sound: Mark Paterson
Stunt coordinator: Jonathan Arthur
Runtime: 130 min · 2h 10m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $23,000,000
Box office: $321,752,656
Return: 1399% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Green Book (2018)

Awards

National Board of Review: Top Ten Films
National Board of Review Award for Best Film
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Academy Award for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Peter Farrelly

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Gimly2019-01-20
★ 6/10
Sadly, didn't end racism, but still very cute. Final rating:★★★ - I liked it. Would personally recommend you give it a go.
Manuel São Bento2019-01-24
★ 10/10
If you enjoy reading my Spoiler-Free reviews, please follow my blog :) Living in Portugal has a ton of pros, but regarding movies, it lacks serious advantages. The price of admission is expensive, there is only one film theater in my city (every time I want to watch a movie on IMAX or Dolby Atmos, it's a financial effort and time-consuming) and the worst of all, a whole bunch of films aren't released in their original date, especially November/December Oscar-bait movies. Only now I had the opportunity to see Green Book, and I am so mad I wasn't able to write its review in 2018 because this is undoubtedly the best comedy-drama of last year and one of the best overall! With the help of a terrific cast, Peter Farrelly and his writing crew (which counts with Vallelonga's son, Nick) deliver what I think is the best screenplay of 2018. I can't remember the last time I cried of so much laughter in a film. I can't remember the last time I did the latter and still got emotional with the dramatic arc. This comedy-drama sent me through a roller coaster of emotions I wasn't expecting, at all. I went in anticipating outstanding performances (check) and solely that. Since 2019 has already begun, I'm watching the Oscar-bait movies with no real hopes of being utterly amazed. However, Green Book completely took me by surprise. I genuinely don't know why everyone was so shocked when it won Best Screenplay at the Golden Globe Awards. It possesses such a well-written story, filled with brilliant narratives about the most sensitive subjects. It takes the two main characters and elevates their individual arcs into subplots where you begin and end with two completely different personas. It's an extremely relevant film that shows how our world evolved and fought back racism and discrimination, without ever becoming too dark or even dull. It's not more of the same, it's not another movie produced exclusively to send a social message and catch some Oscar nominations. It's a truly captivating story of how two men can change their perspective of another race or even the entire world, by actually spending time with another culture and ignoring preconceived notions. Nevertheless, this well-structured, beautifully-directed and cleverly-written film would be just "good" if not for the two incredible actors, who take this movie to a whole other level. Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali have such compelling chemistry that I wouldn't mind watching them interact for two hours on a car trip. Every single car sequence either produces hilarious moments, filled with tearful laughter, or it drastically changes into a more dramatic and emotional tone, subtly touching delicate topics. I knew Mortensen had a humorous side to him, but I never saw this coming! His timing, his expressions, his Italian accent, his body movements, everything about his performance is perfect. He absolutely nailed his part, by giving me the best time I had at a film theater in a long time, and his Oscar nomination is more than fair. He made a 130-min feature movie feel like a short flick. Ali doesn't come far behind. Obviously, since Viggo has a funnier role to portray, the audience members might feel that he's just there to help his co-star shine, but he does much more than that. Since he brings the drama element to the story, he has a more restrained performance during the first half of the film. However, once Shirley starts getting along with Tony Lip, Ali gradually offers more and more splendid acting moments. He's definitely a supporting actor, but God is he a phenomenal one! Linda Cardellini (Dolores Vallelonga), even though she's only on-screen for a few minutes spread throughout the runtime, also delivers a great performance. Tony Lip and Dr. Don Shirley have quite distinct personalities, besides being from different races. Each character's arc is brilliantly illustrated by Peter Farrelly, who gradually shows how Tony and Don are changing their view of the world and of each other's culture. Either through the witty car sequences or through unfortunate and horrible experiences, these two characters carry the audience on a journey of growth. Change in behavior, mindset and preconceived ideas, by sharing their own culture with another. Even though they were born in different countries and lived through distinguished lifestyles, with contrasting quality of life, they eventually start realizing that what they think of the world and everything else might not be entirely right. Technically, Farrelly controls the movie's pacing exceptionally well, by making a two-hour-ish film feel like half of it. Remarkably-balanced tone and some great cinematography is showed in a couple of scenes. Consistently-filmed and well-edited, even though the latter has small hiccups here and there. Nevertheless, this isn't a film with extraordinary technical attributes, nor it needs them. Farrelly only needed to do "ok" with the producing and filming of a standout screenplay to achieve a fantastic result, and that's exactly what he did. Finally, regarding the controversy surrounding this movie ... See how easy it is to watch a film without being affected by outside matters which don't have a single thing to do with the movie itself? I don't care if someone who worked in the film tweeted something wrong today, let alone years ago. I don't care if someone misinterprets Viggo Mortensen's speech about racism. I don't care if the family of Don Shirley doesn't like how the movie approaches his way of being or his way of life. I don't care if the story isn't 100% true, as long as it succeeds in transmitting the vital message it wants to deliver, while actually being a good film. So, please, stop trying to listen to everything everyone says about a movie or the people working on it, especially nowadays, where chaos is easy to create. Green Book surprised the hell out of me and left me speechless in the end. One of the best comedy-dramas I've seen in a long time, one of the best films of 2017 and, by far, the best original screenplay of the last year. Peter Farrelly and his fellow co-writers delivered a seamlessly-written story, filled with wonderful character arcs and with a quite important message to the audiences around the world. Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali deliver award-worthy performances, especially the former who shows his incredible comedic timing and dramatic range. Still, the most compelling and emotional scenes come from Ali, and he does not deserve to be forgotten. I thought 2018 was going to be the first year without me giving an A+, but guess what ... Rating: A+
The Peruvian Post2020-02-17
★ 9/10
"Frequently, when someone tries to portray the overwhelming decade of the 1960s, they usually misuse the concept of discrimination towards African Americans, which is accurate to describe this social issue. Nevertheless, the way Peter Farrelly and staff go into detail about this social wretchedness embodying the psychological impact it has in the main character makes the film an outstanding one". The year is 1962, and the film begins inside Copacabana restaurant where we get introduced the imposing personality of Tony Lip, an Italian descendant whose family came from a lower middle class coping with some financial difficulties. The way Viggo Mortensen performs the character is a proper model of then American racism; therefore he attempted to keep them out until the occasion arrived and Don Shirley appeared in his path, offering him a two-month lifetime opportunity. We all need to bear in mind the precise dates because, in real life, it was nearly a year they spent together. Despite his gifted pianist skills and his upper-class status, he was still a victim of the convulsed cultural impact. Both of them, during the film, learn from each other and fight against the unsettling behaviour of determined people. Although it may seem simple, their interaction is one of the primary reasons why it succeeds. Believe it or not, it arouses curiosity, reaches the climax when they finally let them know as they are, and sometimes it results as a plot twister due to the radical temperament change of each actor. It has been ages since I watched such a pleasant film; afterwards, I felt refreshed as though it renewed me. The contextualisation was imperative to build up each one's personality; moreover, it was visually dazzling owing to the costumes, the space and the background advertisement of the decade. Comedy is present as well so that you won't be missing from genuine laughs. Everything appears to be perfectly balanced, even the role of secondary personages such as Tony's wife and the cheeky cards experience. I'm chuffed to bits! On the whole, the film "Green Book" is an exceptional example of the conception of a masterpiece without spending loads of money in production and without creating plenty of trifling scenarios. [85/100]