I can’t say GREEN BOOK is a bad film, it’s too competent. But it’s a very ordinary Best Picture winner. To its credit, the realities of being a touring black musician of any calibre during this period are not ignored. A handful of good scenes and the easy chemistry between Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali nearly make it all worth it. But it relies too much on easy stereotypes without saying anything even remotely profound about them, and some of these shortcuts to characterisation are damaging, even if you’re aiming for a lighter tone. Even when you’re bringing class and intellectualism into the mix for your discussion of prejudice you’re always on dodgy ground if your white character gives a black character a lecture on how to be better at being black. Yes, even if by the end of the film he and his family put a pin in being racist for Christmas. SSP