Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali Take a 1960s Road Trip in Peter Farelly’s ‘Green Book’ Trailer
Peter Farrelly, one half of the Farrelly brothers, is best known the duo’s comedies: There’s Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber, Me Myself & Irene, and so on. But Farrelly’s next film is quite the tangent from those titles, dipping into dramatic territory for the first time to tell a true story about race and class in 1960s America. Like I said, quite the tangent.
Green Book stars Viggo Mortensen as a Bronx bouncer who’s hired to drive Mahershala Ali’s world-class jazz pianist on a concert tour across the country in 1962. Based on the real-life jazz musician Don Shirley, the title refers to the guide books made for black travelers to find non-discriminating hotels, businesses, and gas stations when driving through segregated areas.
The first trailer finds the two confronted with racism and having conversations about the stereotypes placed on black folks, like assumptions around eating fried chicken. Is this another black-man-helps-the-white-man-become-woke story where the two become best buds along the way? That seems to be the case, but hopefully Farrelly’s film gets into something more nuanced. At the very least, we’ll get to see Ali – that's Academy Award Winner Mahershala Ali – sporting a very fine yellow plaid jacket.
The film also stars Linda Cardellini, Sebastian Maniscalco, Dimiter D. Marinov, and P.J. Byrne. Green Book makes its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival next month before hitting theaters November 21.