Green book won the best picture. Here is why I don’t believe it should have
*First, as a disclaimer, I want to make it clear that this is my own opinion and it is perfectly fine for you to disagree with me.*
Ok, so the 91st Oscars roll around, you grab your bowl of popcorn, you sit down and let the years most hyped awards show commence. Aside from a few surprises here and there, everything is generally pretty predictable. Roughly 2 hours in the time has come, time to see who has won best picture. Julia Roberts comes up to the stage. Opens the elusive red envelope. “And the winner is Green Book”
Confusion, confusion, and more confusion spirals throughout my mind. Green Book has just won best picture.
Now don’t get me wrong. I think the Green Book is a good movie. I thought it was enjoyable to watch and I would recommend it. Moreover, I thought that Mahershala Ali gave an incredible performance. But do I think it was the best picture of 2018… No. There are a few problems I had with Green Book and I will touch on those later.
Almost 4 days after the Oscars has ended, I am starting to realize why Green Book won the Oscars, and it is not because it was the best picture, it is because it was was the best picture tailored to win the Oscars Best Picture award. If I don’t make sense, I will shortly. But before we dive into why the Oscars as an awards show don’t work, here is why Green Book objectively speaking was not the best picture. In one word Green Book was: Safe.
Out of all the movies I watched this awards season, Green book was by far one of the most forgettable. Stripped down and analyzed the plot is incredibly linear and predictable. You have two characters from differing backgrounds who go through ups and downs throughout their journey ultimately leading them to both become better human beings by the end. Remind you of any other movies you have watched? Yeah, I thought so.
Compared to Roma or The Favorite who took incredible risks in various departments, Green Book didn’t really take many and that is why the Oscar voting system rewarded it. So what do I mean by the Oscar voting system? Well, for the Oscars, movies are ranked 1 to 8 based preference. So if I thought Roma was the best movie of the year and Green Book was the worst, Roma would go number 1 and Green Book would go number 8. What does this do? This rewards movie which are not controversial and pleases the most amount of people. Remember when I said that I thought Green Book was a good movie, but I didn’t think it was an outstanding or terrible movie. That means that I would probably slot it at number 3 or 4. What eventually happens is the movies in these categories are awarded Best Picture because comparatively speaking they pleased the most amount of people. At the end of the day, the least amount of people left the theater feeling like they were robbed of 12 dollars, which can happen with polarizing movies like The Favourite. The same happened with the individuals who cast their vote for Best Picture and… here we are. Green Book has won best picture.
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