The dichotomy of the American South in the 1960s.

Rating: Null/10 (31 December 2018)

About equal parts comedy & drama that shows the budding friendship of a white man & a black man by seeing the Jim Crow South first hand. It deals with racism & prejudice by exploring a man's attempt to make it in the world when he isn't fully accepted by either community, asking how someone can be black but not "black enough." It shows how these two people from vastly different walks of life come to understand & care about the other while highlighting the dichotomy of the American South in the 1960s, where a black man could perform for a group of white people but couldn't eat in the same restaurant with them. The performances are phenomenal here with both Mahershala Ali & Viggo Mortensen completely selling the changing relationship in this situation. Linda Cardellini gives a much more subtle but just as spellbinding performance as Dolores Vallelonga. Shot well & with an amazing soundtrack, this film is as important as it is entertaining, like Driving Miss Daisy (1989) in reverse.