Green Book - 5 nominations

Best Picture - Jim Burke, Charles B. Wessler, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly and Nick Vallelonga

Actor in a Leading Role, Viggo Mortensen
Actor in a Supporting Role, Mahershala Ali
Film Editing, Patrick J. Don Vito
Writing (Original Screenplay), Written by Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly

Green Book is based on the true story of Dr. Donald Shirley, renowned concert pianist and his musical tour of the south with his trio.  As he prepares for the tour, he engages Tony "Lip" Vallelonga to serve as his driver and personal security staff.  In the film, Tony Lip comes from a tough Italian neighborhood and holds prejudicial views about a number of different people with diverse backgrounds.  Dr. Shirley is a highly educated, refined, intellectual elitist who insists on doing the right thing at all times, but has a lonely existence without close relationships with family or friends.  Over the course of the film, a friendship grows between the two men as their differences fade and they each get glimpses into each other's worlds.

Taken on its own, the film celebrates what it means to see the humanity of the other and how that creates change in people who are racist.  The evolution of racism to humanity and connection is one that makes us feel good, which I think is the reason that people like this film so much.  There is another side to this movie, however, in which Dr. Shirley's family disputes the film's narrative vehemently (who remembers my admonition that "based on a true story" does not mean "IS the true story?"), and I read that Mahershala Ali called Shirley's family to apologize for the film.  Hard to know what to make of that.

I don't know what is true, but the bottom line is that watching the film feels good and heartwarming and uplifting.  The screenplay as written is beautiful.  Given all I have learned about the reality of the story, it's hard to support the Best Picture nomination, but, if this were written as purely invented story, I think I would have loved it.  Given that, I have no choice but to embrace the film as it is and hope that it continues to teach important lessons to those who still somehow need to learn that we are all people and that relationships are about who we are, not what we are.  

Captain Fantastic - 1 nomination

Actor - Viggo Mortensen

I have been waiting to write this review since the day I saw Captain Fantastic.  This film is like no other you've ever seen before.  Viggo Mortensen (Ben) plays the father of 6 kids who he is raising in the forest of the Pacific Northwest.  "Off the grid" to say the least.  He is raising them to be physically and intellectually superior and ready for anything that comes their way.  He teaches them to be critical thinkers, and one is more knowledgeable than the next.  Instead of Christmas, they celebrate Noam Chomsky's birthday, and one of the gifts to one of the children is a hunting knife.  These are only examples of what was once called an "alternative lifestyle," and when Ben tells his kids that it's ok to shoplift, we know that he is creating his own rules for life.

When their mom dies, Ben takes them on a road trip where they learn more about people than they could gather from books, and they see the world through the lens of how people not living off the grid see them.  When they go to bury their wife and mom, the nuclear family spends time with the mom's sister, brother in law, their kids, and her parents.  These people do not approve of the lifestyle Ben and his late wife established.  Though I don't often use quotes from a movie to describe it, this revealing quip from the oldest son who wants to go to college despite his father's objections sums up some of the movie nicely: "I know nothing! I know nothing!  I am a freak because of you!  You made us freaks!  And mom knew that!  She understood!  Unless it comes out of a fucking book, I don't know anything about anything!"  So that is the paradox - if you raise erudite critical thinking children who know nothing of the world, have you done your job as a parent? 

This movie is quirky and Viggo Mortensen is every bit the highly intellectual hippie.  But his emotional side is also vital, and his relationships with his kids make you start to wonder if you should give this kind of parenting a try.  I was captivated by the film.  The young actors who play the kids are incredible - listening to a little girl recite the first amendment from memory and then discussing the political ramifications of the Bill of Rights is one you won't soon forget.

There is nothing quite like Captain Fantastic, but that's what makes it so worth watching.