Is this a joke?

Rating: 2/10 (3 February 2019)

Where are the good movies these days? Do we really need another "woke" film? Driving Miss Daisy already covered this topic in reverse.
Viggo Mortensen, an Italian American? Really? I like the guy, but he was totally miscast and he overdid everything. It was like a bunch of Italian caricatures from Italians in movies, but not real life. Did Peter Farrelly watch the Sopranos and then copied the behavior from that? If you wanna see authentic Italian-American movies there are plenty to choose from like the obvious, Godfather, Mean Streets, Goodfellas just to name a few.
Although this isn't a gangster movie, it had those elements in there, but they all felt totally phony. Then an "Africa King" living on top of Carnegie Hall. Really? Is this Black Panther?
Let's ignore all the totally unbelievable scenes like the fight in the Copa and everyone just pretends nothing is going on like the band keeps playing etc. That he throws away glasses BECAUSE two black guys drank from them, but then 2 minutes later he has no problem working intimately with a black man. Really? He went from irate racist to civil rights advocate in a few minutes after turning down a gig for the Italian guys, because after showing total contempt for black people, he would just turn down working with his own group of people. Turning down gigs while selling his property to stay alive. Then his mingling with other black drivers and having fun, totally ignoring the original set up of him a staunch racist. Really? On top of being a staunch racist, he constantly listened to black music and knew all about it. Really?
Sorry, no genuine racist would drive for a black guy in the south. Not buying that part of it. And no black guy that was that "proper" and insisting on classy behavior would ever hire a low-class guy like. None of it rang true.
It was written like it all took place today using language like "traveling while black." Really?
Mahershala Ali is just an overrated actor. No one speaks like that and he totally missed the REAL Don Shirley's gay/flamboyant high and fast-talking large personality.
The whole time I'm waiting for the obligatory "pulled over by racist cops" scene. Of course, it came. That always has to be part of every woke movie.
The movie was idiotic. I didn't buy for one second anything that happened. Amazing how a lot of people are fooled by bad writing, bad casting, bad acting and bad directing.