Heartwarming

Rating: 8/10 (14 April 2019)

This film has gotten a lot of bad press from the historical inaccuracies to it's controversial win for Best Picture-I have to admit I did buy into some of that press. Despite that however, the audience reaction seemed to be very positive (at least in Japan)-several of my friends recommended the film to me. So, with slightly low expectationsI I finally watched the film last night-it was pretty good. The performances (especially by Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, and Linda Cardellini) were wonderful, the story was very heartwarming, and the music (both the score and soundtrack) were solid. Was it worth the Best Picture? Not really, far from the best, but I don't think it was an outrageous decision either. One of the controversies was the depiction of race- such example is apparent when Don Shirley, a high-brow black man embraces the low class stereotypes in the latter half of the film. I personally thought it worked in the film because the friendship and trust between the Tony Lip and Don Shirley changed the two men-both embracing something new. It's a typical buddy, road trip movie, not a historical epic like 12 years a slave or The Color Purple. Some critics and haters called this Driving Miss Daisy 2, I completely disagree because it does this film does provide a fresh take (A white working class man chauffeuring a black and gay musician) on the Roadtrip genre. It's worth the watch!