STREAMING GREEN BOOK ON NETFLIX: NOT A JOKE

Rating: 9/10 (12 December 2019)

Until last weekend, as my roommate asked help for her shutdown iPhone, I had firmly believed that Netflix is used for TV episodes other than movies. Not anymore. When I was trying to save the phone through the long process of system upgrade, she warmheartedly recommended a title from movie selection. It took me almost a minute, awkward enough, to process that she was talking about a film. Nonetheless, after my finishing the tournament of repair service, I felt obliged to call it out, "it is the end of an era, isn't it"?
According to recent researches, people start to open Netflix and its counterparts on a smart TV for a decent movie. By referencing to decency, I am talking about a movie of some real-deal production, during which you'd better dress yourself up and pour a glass of wine all the way down. The boundary, as my theater teacher friend Dolores correctly points out, is determined by the manners of watching. For me, episodes are what you can go through with other stuff on hand, nonetheless movies are those you have a protocol to follow, such as the solemnities of remaining presence and concerns for context loss by taking a leak. The streaming giant is no longer associated with cheap thrill on a lazy couch, sometimes accompanied with the cheese and crackers. Sorry for your bladder, but you may have to respect some rituals to follow a movie through.
The popularity of movie on streaming service, as a result, blurs the given boundary. In the good old days, the disparity can't be more significant, just as lobster and crayfish, champagne and beer, phone number on a handkerchief and sex robot deep in the cupboard. Despite some still uphold the irreplaceability of physical intercourse, the rest of demarches is increasingly meaningless, after all, we are living in a world where all are buried equal. For instance, it is increasingly risky for an elected politician to talk posh on TV, since it may detach the base of politician through the distance being created.
Bearing that in mind, it won't be surprising that some audience, especially international ones, spare the first round of Green Book to Netflix. I am proud enough to claim that I belong to the fraction. Yes, I haven't watched Green Book in cinema, and yes again, I feel terrible when my people remind me of their commentaries. For a long time, despite the saved-up bow tie and tuxedo, I tend to visit cinema to pay my tribute for a movie of Oscar. Likewise, under the magic of Academy, I feel mandated to bear a particular state of mind and offer a specific form of comment. Due to the recommendation from Dolores, I feel obliged, as solemnly as Trump's presidential oath, to follow the thread and catch up with the speed.
I have to confess that the experience of streaming an Oscar-winning movie at home is roughly incredible. In the age of Netflix movie-watching, all you need is a subscribed New York Times newsletter, in addition to a Netflix account for around 8 euros which is charged monthly, to trigger the curiosity. I still keep notes and highlight plots, but all being done on my tablet. The only item that associate myself with a 19-century nostalgia is a typewriter-style keyboard, which actually connects my tablets through Bluetooth. Nowadays, it costs far less than ever to pretend like a good liberal, letting alone well-informed voter.
Against the background, the movie's notorious reputation is somewhat made reasonable. No doubts, it is a wonderful story of reconciliation and redemption, and moreover, epitomes the American way to humanity. The tension is primarily constructed between an unlikely pair from New York, an African American renowned artist and his Italian American valiant muscle. In time of December 1962, an epilogue for an age of turbulence and remake, they started a courageous music tour into deep south.
For a moment, I am almost motivated to tears. The theme of civil rights movements repeats by my ears. Hand in hand, both characters fight their fight against various discriminative manifestations, varying from explicit exercise of segregation to implicit stereotypes arising from prejudice. Finally, the pair, seated by the Christmas dinner table, were savoring the gratification of family reunion. The whole story almost resonates the theme of American patriotism: God, family, and the beacon of freedom. By the way, it is not a joke.
However, the story, all magic twists regardless, is merely too good, or too American, to be true. Despite people seldom reckon it in moment of joy, they have to come to terms with the imperfection of real life. In this regard, the redemption theme is far too mythical that most reasonable minds may feel reluctant to embrace. After all, in the early 60' America, the odds that Don Shirley mainstreams himself in the white-dominated culture is almost the same as the chances that Tony Lip survives the bullets and punches in nightclub scenes. The storyline typically fits the desire for simplification, and sometimes trespasses the safety valve, making it into oversimplification. In some scenes, it is almost similar to gauging the catering cost of ordinary families through the menu of a Michelin restaurant.
I won't find it difficult to apprehend Spike Lee's anger after Oscar ceremony though. In Lee's take, Oscar merely acknowledges an exceptional figure who is capable to assimilate with mainstream. Meanwhile, the figure remains ambiguous on his stance towards the heterodoxy. In spite of these, the mainstream still tries to embark it with the tag of reconciliation, which is truly annoying. The logic behind the reconciliation reiterates a self-fulfilling prophecy; do you know why you fail? Simply because you suck. Look at Dr. Shirley, he is the one that makes it.
Just as those people in need of a charismatic leader, the storyline of Green Book is built upon the moment of singularity. The character of Dr. Shirley represents an endeavor to create that singularity, after which the history of whole universe makes sense. However, for people in the age of streaming service, it is more plausible that the big bang, instead of a fictional starting point, creates all that follows. The same as most of geological event, it is ashes, rocks, and ruins that purports all the spectacular.
By saying that, till today, only a few of minority can make a career that is comparable with Dr. Shirley. For the making of minority, two options are set ahead: following the successors of Malcom X who struggle to shake the establishment bottom-up, or joining the alike of Dr. King that manages to alter the system from top-down. By the way, both of them end their life in a way they have never expected. The in-your-face struggle, after all, defines how the Green Book unfolds.
Or, with all that in mind, we probably demand the moment of singularity. The truth, after all, can be unaffordable, intolerable, and insufferable, and we, as human beings, just don't want to deal with it.
If so, why don't we stream Green Book on Netflix, and make a joke about it?