Thighs Wide Shut

Green Book
Opposites React
Official Site | Trailers & Mo
PG-13 | 130 min

Need a hug? A good laugh? A reason to feel good about humanity, and how we can overcome our differences to find common ground?  Or how about a chance to smile, like endlessly?  You can have all of this AND MORE by watching the candy-colored Hallmark movie-esque, but always fabulous Green Book – easily one of my favorite movies 2018.

How is this so?  It’s a serious subjected movie directed by There’s Something Dumb and Dumber About Kingpin‘s Peter Farrelly (leaving his brother Bobby at home).  The first act is filled with more New York-Italian stereotypes than if Chef Boyardee and Mama Celeste starred in a Ragu commercial.  Whatdamattawitchu???  Once we leave the stereotypes behind in New Yawk, and meathead Viggo Mortensen starts driving sophisticated musician Mahershala Ali around the deep south, in a time when African-American men know better than to travel down there, does the film’s magic really begin.  And once that magic starts – it never stops, casting some sort of spell on you until it’s time to get up and go home!

Wow – I love this movie.  I really do.  It’s truly a ‘feel-good’ flick, and one we really need right now.  And it’s all true!  Mortensen plays a bouncer named Tony Vallelonga (who later became an actor himself, Tony Lip, with parts in Goodfellas, The Sopranos, Donnie Brasco and a slew of other gangster related movies) who was hired to drive and look after Ali’s classical pianist Don Shirley on his concert tour thru the Dirty South.  The ‘green book’ in the title is an actual guidebook African-Americans would use so they would know where they could stay overnight, as many places were not so friendly with their ‘whites only’ policies.  And while race is always an issue in the film, it doesn’t over-envelope the proceedings like you think it would.  And even when Tony and Don run afoul of locals along the way, it never goes too far, keeping things nice and light.  Light is good.  You want dark, watch Mississippi Burning.  Want a movie where a white guy sells the virtues of fried chicken on a black guy?  Who doesn’t?  This movie is finger-licking AWESOME!

Verdictgo: Breast In Show

Book opens today in limited release and everywhere next week

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

Moonlight
This Boy’s Life In Three Acts
Official Site | Trailer & Mo
R | 110 min

I usually don’t start these reviews by displaying the movie’s poster, let alone TWO posters, but not one picture can fully capture what’s going on in Barry Jenkins‘ Moonlight – a tale of a(n African-American) boy becoming a (gay) man, told in three acts, like these posters can!

Act I was fantastic.  The boy – known as ‘Little’ (Alex R Hibbert) – is too shy to even speak – speak about not fitting in with the other boys, or what’s going on/wrong with his strung-out mom (Naomie Harris – trolling hardcore for Oscar bait, but I didn’t take the bait).  He finds solace in the hands and home of a drug dealer with a heart of gold (an incredible Mahershala Ali) and his beautiful lady friend (the beautiful singer Janelle Monáe, making her screen debut)

Life moves on… to Act II, which perhaps is even more fantastic than Act I was, where ‘Little’ now goes by ‘Chiron’, his birth name.  This high school version of the boy is still a fragile egg, but at least he has a better understanding of how the world works… apparently working against him.  His mom’s even more of a mess than before, and he still can’t fit in with the boys, cause he likes boys, but not ready to let that part of him out.  This version is played by Ashton Sanders, who holds the weight of his character’s sh!tty world mightily on his shoulders.  Sanders reminds me a lot of another up-and-comer - Keith Stanfield.  I’d love to see the two in a movie together (but not a buddy-cop one)

The third Act, where our boy is now a man, and goes by the name ‘Black’ (the 50 Cent-looking Trevante Rhodes), is important to the character’s arc, but not nearly as interesting or impactful as the previous two acts.  He finally comes to terms with who he truly is, and reunites with a former classmate, who we’ve also seen grow alongside him in each act (this final iteration played by the forver smiling André Holland).  It’s nice to see the two find peace with themselves and one another, but this final act is basically watching one long slow-a$$ scene of two dudes having dinner in a diner

Moonlight certainly shines, but could have been a bit more brighter, and a bit more fuller than the waxing gibbous that it ultimate is

Worth checking out – Jenkins’ previous feature/his debut – Medicine for Melancholy

Verdictgo: Jeepers Worth A Peepers

Moonlight rises, currently in limited release

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…