Well, the folks at Lionsgate/Summit waited until tonight to “preview” their movie, which opens in less than 24 hours.
Many others have already reviewed the thing, so I will get to it later.
Instead, tonight presents one with a choice, and I choose to check out “Green Book” some weeks before its release.
I cannot recall the first place I ever heard of the famous green-covered guide to African American-friendly businesses — restaurants and hotels — compiled during the dark days when America was “great,” and discrimination/segregation was the rule and in many cases, the law of the land.
I think PBS did something on it (might have seen something on “The History Detectives”), but I had heard of it first hand from one late comer to the showbiz “chitlin’ circuit” of African American entertainment.
Bernie Mac brought it up, I think, in an interview we did shortly before he passed.
In any event, the subject is fascinating and damned timely, considering the direction of the country, “Back to the Confederacy!”
It’s a “Driving Miss Daisy” twist, a true story and at around 2:10 in length, “Oscar level serious.” Even though Peter Farrelly directed it.
Movie Nation 