Green Book (2018) / Heaven Hill Green Label Bourbon

0:00 In 2018, director Peter Fairley and star Viggo Mortensen gave the world a buddy dramedy that may have won best picture but not the heart of its critics. In 2023, we bid a fond farewell to one of our favorite budget pores. The film is Green Book. The whiskey is Heaven Hill Green label. And we'll review them both. This is. The Film and Whiskey podcast.

0:47 Welcome to the Film and Whiskey podcast, where each week we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey. I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad Gee. And this week we are revisiting our Season 1 review of Green Book Brad. When we first threw this into the mix back in early 2019, this movie had just won Best Picture, surprising a lot of people, causing film Twitter to absolutely meltdown. And we thought, let's get some of that sweet, sweet anger clicks and and we did, you know, it was a great time. It really put us on the map, you know? Oh. Totally put us on the map, Bob. I have complicated feelings about Green Book and I'm going to be honest with you, Brad, most of these revisits that we've done, I've gone back and listened to our original episode.

1:36 I did not do that today, mostly because I didn't have time, but also because like enough time has passed that any initial reactions have really worn off. I think five years is a really good amount of time to start re evaluating a movie anyway. Like you like all of the hype around a movie has fallen off and you can really just see the thing for what it is. So I'm I'm kind of excited to just start fresh with a new review of this movie. Yeah, I am too. This is one of those films that I remember because it was so fresh. And so, yeah, I mean, I don't know if it was like wildly controversial.

2:16 They're just some people who didn't like that it won best picture, but it but it was so fresh back then. And we, you know, we're still new to the podcast, so it felt like a bigger deal to watch this movie and review it then then it really was. And now it's nice just to sit down and be like, hey, this is a movie, there's people in it. Let's let's see what we think. Do you remember anything from our original review? Like is there, Do you know? Oh, I made a point about this and I'm going to do that again today. Or because I honestly, Brad, here's all I remember about that day. Early on in the podcast journey. What we did was we would record 4 full episodes at a time. So we would just take a whole day once a month and knock out a bunch of episodes.

2:58 And on this day, we met in the living room of our friend, producer Eric. I remember this because I had just gotten my wisdom teeth out and. I do remember that. And they were healing like the, the sockets were healing. And we ate pizza for lunch. And I remember a Shard of pizza crust just piercing through one of my, you know, absent teeth. And I bled everywhere. And it was a horrible day. That's all I remember. That those are very specific things about the movie Green Book, Bob. Who's going to say I don't remember the movie? I just remember my teeth hurting really badly. Yeah, well, I mean, do you want to say, like, go back in time and pray for you that we can lay hands on you, anoint you with oil?

3:49 It'll be great. It was one of the first times I remember being really grateful for a drink of whiskey, though, because you know, you're not allowed to drink alcohol for like at least a week after you get them out. And so I had just hit the one week mark and I was like, I will celebrate with whiskey. And we sure did. All the whiskeys well and honestly, this was a one of the best whiskeys of that day. I would assume. I don't know what else we drank, but but man Heaven Hill Green label. All right, man, let's dive in. And I think the place to start is where we always start, and that's where the little segment that we call Brad explains. Brad's going to give us the movie plots with only 60 seconds sticking on the clock, so let's go ahead and do your take with this little segment that we call, Brad explains.

4:34 Brad Explains is the part of the podcast where Brad breaks down the plot of the movie that he has just seen. Now folks, we know this is not Brad's first time seeing any movies this season, but I am curious, have you watched this movie at all in the interim between the first time we watched it and now Brad? I'm. Going to give you one guess on that, Bob. That was a betting man. I would say absolutely not. Yeah, this is a movie that I always was curious to return to. And so once you pitched the idea of of, you know, re reviewing season 1 again, I was like, OK, this will be the one more time that I ever watched Green Book. There you go.

5:16 And and now it's your turn to give us a 62nd rundown of the movie. I have to say, Brad, some movies you can watch the trailer too. And it's not necessarily that the trailer gives the whole movie away, but it's just that, you know that the movie is not going to have much more to say beyond the trailer. And I kind of feel like this is one of those movies, like, even if you've never seen Green Book, you've got a good idea of what Green Book is about. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yep. All right, well, so you've got one minute on the clock to breakdown the plot of this movie, Brad and go. Green Book is a film about Tony Vallalonga, a Italian driver from New York who takes a pianist named Don Shirley on a tour of the South.

6:03 The primary complicating factor of this film is the fact that it's set in the 1960s and Don Shirley is a black man. Therefore, they must follow the Green Book, which is a motorist guide for well, I don't know how to say about the official title was The Negro's Motorists Green Book. So it was for people of color to travel in the South as safely as they possibly could. They run into a lot of racism. They find ways to bond along the way and uncover hidden truths about themselves. And Linda Cardellini is incredible. And the lesson that they learn is that the real Green Book was inside of them all along, right?

6:50 The end just just play us outbound. That's that's the entire episode you. Know what on that note, I don't know when else we're going to get around to to saying this, Brad, but I think this is a really poorly named a movie. I like I think it's a great title. It's a great title for a movie. But the green book itself plays next to no part in this movie. Like it is barely touched upon. And then there is a few scenes where you see Vigo kind of thumbing through it a little bit. And it's, you know, I understand that it's there is the metaphor. But like, if you're going to call your movie Green Book, you should at least dedicate a scene to really breaking down what the Green Book is about.

7:34 And they they don't do that. I mean, was there more to the Green Book than what they showed? Yeah, you're, I mean, you're right, dude. I I think there's not that much more that they could have talked about, but I think calling the movie Green Book is I don't, I hate using the word problematic. I don't want to talk about why this movie is problematic, but like it kind of implies that the movie is going to really be about the lived experience of the black characters in the movie. And it's not like Don Shirley is very much a supporting character and it's more of a story of Viggo Mortensen learning to become not so much a racist anymore. And I think that like they could have come up with a title that better reflected that, I guess is all I'm saying.

8:17 All I can think about is like a title like crazy stupid love but crazy, stupid racist. Oh man, where do you want to start today? Do you just want to dive right into the two big performances? Do you want to talk about the film itself? Like we're going to wade into some mildly hot waters here? So where do you where do you want to start splashing about? I mean, let's talk about the performances. I I think that they are the only reason this movie has legs, so we might as well spend the bulk of our time there. Let's start with Mahershala Ali because I'm going to have more complicated thoughts on Viggo Mortensen and I, I don't want it to sound like I'm here to complain about this movie all day.

8:59 And if there was any surprise in re watching this movie, Brad, and there weren't very many surprises. It was exactly what I remembered it being. But man, I don't know if I remembered Mahershala Ali being quite this incredible. It was. It was like revelatory how good he was in this movie. Yeah, Mahershala Ali, from the start of the film to the end, just has this energy about him that completely fits, I think what Peter fairly was going for. He, he just has this incredible aura of anger and he's brooding and he's ready to lash out.

9:41 And yet he has a kind intelligence about him that's just endearing. And I, I don't know how he does it, but he simultaneously is somebody I never want to spend time with. And yet I also want him to be like the Godfather to my my children. He he plays wounded so well and he never seems, I don't want to say he doesn't seem bitter. He seems like internally bitter, but he's he's open to the world and he's a person that feels like he's been rejected by the world. And he gets his great big oscari moments and I love that for him. But I think the most winning parts of his performance are in the really small moments. And it's especially in the scenes that, and we'll get into talking about the scenes that we like and dislike the most, but, you know, like the fried chicken eating scene, which has just red flags all over it.

10:34 If there's any reason that a scene like that even remotely works, it's because of Mahershala bringing humanity to that scene. Like, you know, Vigo's doing what Vigo's supposed to do in that scene. But there are moments in this movie where the writing wants to make these two guys into cartoon characters. And the only reason that it even kind of works is because Mahershala plays it not just how it's on the page, but plays it as a guy who has seen a lot of the world and knows that even when these white people mean well, like this is kind of offensive. And so he he he plays into that, and I think it really lends a sense of believability to even the most unbelievable scenes in the movie.

11:23 See, honestly, it's a scene like that that I find completely believable. Like just from the, just from the sense that this, the whole movie. I, I think the, the reason it works so well in a lot of places is because you can imagine this all being true in the 60s. Like I can imagine an Italian dude from the Bronx being as casually racist as Vigo is in this movie, of course. And so I think it's, it's stuff like that where I don't always know how, how to like deal with this movie because in a certain sense, I feel like it's just displaying things as they mostly were at, you know, and there are some people in the 60s who were not racist and there were a lot of people who were.

12:13 And so I, I don't always know how to judge like Vigo's character. But when we're talking about Mahershala Ali, you are correct in saying that, you know, in places like the the chicken eating scene, he has just a little bit of childlike delight as he eats these wings that makes you truly believe that this is the first time he has ever eaten. And there is there is something about Vigo in that moment as well where, like, his earnestness belies the fact that like, yeah, maybe he's being a little bit stereotypical and racist in that stereotyping, but he's he is so sincere that he doesn't even realize it.

12:57 He just wants to share good food with the guy he's driving. And so I, I, I don't know, man, I don't know what to do with this movie. Yeah, I don't either, man. It's really hard to talk about because All right, Well, maybe maybe the key, the the gateway into talking about it is talk about Vigo. I have so many conflicting thoughts on Vigo Mortensen in this movie. And I guess I'll start by saying I think he deserved the Oscar nomination that he got for this movie. And at the same time, I believe that everything else I'm about to say about that performance is also true. Do you know what I mean? Like, without even knowing exactly what I'm going to say, Brad, I think you know what I'm going to say, right? A little bit, yeah.

13:42 First of all, has there ever been a more Scandinavian looking man than Viggo Mortensen? Viggo Mortensen. I believe that he's half not Brazilian. He is half South American. Interesting. Yeah, I'm pretty sure his mother is South American. All right, well, he has very Scandinavian features, I guess is what I want to say in In any case, he has 0 resemblance to an Italian American, like 0. And even like what in the scenes where the comedian Sebastian Maniscalco plays his brother and they're like, you know, loading up the trunk of the car for him to go on his trip. And I'm like, these two guys look nothing alike. When they show Vigo eating like with his family at the table, it's like this is just a Swedish guy that they dyed his hair black.

14:33 I don't understand how they landed on Vigo for this movie. And again, that's to say nothing about what he ultimately does with the performance. But like, it's just an interesting choice that they're like, let's take the most Italian guy from New York City. Who should we pick? And they're like, I know just the guy, Aragorn. See, here's the thing in in my research for our episode, Bob, I found out that Vigo was Peter Fairley's like absolute first pick, but that he sent the scripts to Vigo basically without a hope that he would actually take the role.

15:13 Because at this point, and you know, throughout Vigo's career, he really hasn't done a ton of movies. Like, he's very picky about the roles that he takes. And this one apparently intrigued him and he like got on. And so the real Tony Vallelongo was a character in The Sopranos. And so he watched every single episode of The Sopranos and like to, to get the, the feel of, you know, Italian culture in general, but also for how, you know, Tony himself spoke. And he like, he like really took it on and really was excited for this role. Like I said, I think he does a great job in the role. I think that the script does him no favors in a lot of places and that it's really hard to to capture a guy who was a larger than life figure. I think everybody has a person like this in their lives where it's like if you're going to write a script about your kooky uncle, right?

16:11 A lot of these things in the script, you know, Nick Valalonga said happened in real life, like he would order an uncut pizza and just fold it in half and eat it like that. And they wanted to fit that little detail in somewhere. I think the problem is that you really have to walk a fine line between those things adding color to a character and fleshing them out and those things making your character then just become a cartoon. And I think that Vigo himself is committed and gives it his all and I think comes out the other side having captured us as an audience and and really empathizing with this character. But I also am like, oh man, I wish I didn't have to watch Vigo do some of the more embarrassing things in this movie. See, I, I, I don't think I'm with you, man. I like, I don't think there was ever a point in this movie where I was like cringing at what Vigo was doing. Like throughout the entire film, I just found him to be extraordinarily charming.

17:18 He pulls off the unintelligent, yet someone you just want to hang out with type of bro perfectly well. So I, I don't know man, I I think that you are picking one too many Nets here. Yeah, it's just hard. I like I said, I think that he deserved every ounce of the Oscar nomination. It's a good performance. And, you know, if we can kind of segue into the movie itself, this is a movie that got really dumped on after having gotten a really positive reception. So I think this movie has like a 78 or something on Metacritic, which is a good score. And then it starts winning over especially some of the older members of the guilds in the Academy, and it becomes a real awards contender. And all of a sudden, you know, you could feel this groundswell of critics just turning on it like, hey, this was a good movie, but now we hate it because it's going to usurp our preferred movies.

18:17 And I have always struggled, Brad, to parse out what criticisms of this movie were really valid and what criticisms came because people got so sick of seeing this movie win and felt it was an undeserving winner that they then went back and said, no, it was actually bad. You know what I mean? Yeah, no, 100%. I mean, here we are recording this episode and right now it has an 8.2 out of 10 on IMDb. So like it. It's not like this is a poorly reviewed film. No. But you're, you're 100% right. It it feels like the the film media in general just kind of dumped on this movie and watching it a second time through, I don't think it deserves all the dumping that it got. Yeah, I think it really was the victim of, you know, this was right in the middle of the the the first go round of like hashtag Oscars, so white and some of the movies that it was nominated up against this year, like Alfonso Cuaron's movie Roma, you know, which is like this foreign language intimate portrait of poverty and and coming of age. And it goes up against Spike Lee's movie Black Klansmen. I think that it ultimately became a lightning rod for we think that the older Academy members are going to vote for this feel good movie that doesn't tackle issues of race in the same, I don't want to say

19:49 confrontational way, but like it's a feel good movie, right? Like it the character goes from being pretty racist to not so racist and really wants to understand the world. And you walk out of this movie feeling like I feel great after I walk out of this movie, right. But I think there is a a huge segment of people that are like. It's easy to reward a movie like this where like racism gets solved at the end of the movie versus these other two movies that really deal with the hard issues of life more. And I think that is a valid criticism when when you're forcing a comparison. But like, in a vacuum, this is not a bad movie.

20:31 I think this is actually a really well made movie. And one of the big surprises for me was how well directed, how well edited, how well shot. Like it's a great looking movie and it's a genuine crowd pleaser. And I just think that ultimately it became a victim of a crowd pleaser that got released in the wrong year, you know what I mean? Yeah, and the, The funny thing is, you know, you're talking about the the Oscars 2 white type of thing. And I, I look back at the actor and leading role supporting an actress in those two. Three out of those four went to people of color. Like you have Regina King, you have Mahershala Ali, and you have our favorite performance of all time, Rami Malik.

21:17 Rami Malek, baby. What a bohemian. Rhapsody. Man, oh gosh, what a weird year this was now that I think back on it. Yeah, like such a such a strange year. I mean, honestly, the only one that really made a lot of sense was like, you know, Cuarone winning cinematography for Roma. I I think Regina King for supporting character, supporting actress makes a lot of sense. There's there's like a lot of things that do make sense. But then you have Bohemian Rhapsody doing incredible and you have Green Book winning Best Picture and. You know what? What a weird year. And now that you mention it too, I think that like the weird symbiotic relationship between Bohemian Rhapsody in this movie also caused more critics to turn on this because it was like, Green Book was winning best picture across the board. And so it was it was boring.

22:08 And it wasn't like the, you know, the socially conscious pick and Rami Malek was winning across the board for a movie that objectively sucks. Like, that movie sucks. And so I think that like, these two movies became inextricably linked as movies, critics didn't want to win their awards. And in in retrospect, I think people dump on the quality of this movie. When they shouldn't. When they really shouldn't. It's a good movie. Yeah. Oh, you know what else it was? Black Panther was for Best Picture. Well, and then you had like you just mentioned if Beale Street could talk lost out on a Best Picture nomination.

22:48 And that was my favorite movie of this year. I know that we've we've parsed out our thoughts on that movie before. But so you've got all of these things converging at the same time. And I really think that, like in another year, does this win best picture? Who knows? I think it would have been seen as a more innocuous entry than it was this year. Yeah, because like you said, Bob, I I think this is an incredibly well made movie. Like I, I think the lighting is really beautiful throughout. The way that they, they show the different sides of the underbelly of the South. I think that they use lighting incredibly well. I think that his cinematography, the car scenes are, are really incredibly well done.

23:33 So yeah, I, I just, man, I had a blast watching this movie again. There, I'll say it. I will too. Well, I won't say I have a blast. I think this movie drags a little bit. Like I noticed the runtime more than I ever have. This is my fourth time watching this movie now and it was the first time that I was like actively checking my phone at certain parts. And part of that is because I'm familiar with it now. But I do think I think it runs about two hours and 10, two hours 15. It could have been like an hour 55, if we're being honest. There's there are a couple scenes that just get repetitive and like there's only so many fish out of water. These two guys are an odd couple that you really need to establish that. And I think that, like, I don't know if it's the fried chicken scene or if there's another one after it, but I remember thinking this time that they had done a really good job of the fish out of water odd couple scenes. And then they had started to get to know each other better. And then they're like, let's do another one of those scenes 'cause we need Comic Relief now.

24:36 And I remember thinking like, you probably could have cut that one. There's only so many times that I can see Don Shirley yell at Tony Lip about not paying for a rock. Then it's like, all right, like, do we need to have another lucky rock scene? Yeah, I I am with you. There are moments that this movie drags. I think that for me, it was probably like 60% of the way through when you're, you're kind of in the slog of the South, which, you know, maybe, maybe he kind of meant for it to feel like a slog, But it, it just felt like a few scenes dragged on a little bit too long. And and we're, we're delaying the inevitable, like let's get back for Christmas and have a nice Christmas scene.

25:19 Listen man, I will freely admit it does not matter if 98% of your movie takes place in the dog days of August. If you end your movie with a scene where a character realizes the true meaning of Christmas, I am on board. I don't even care. Like, I tear up at the end of this movie just because of the way Linda Cardellini says Merry Christmas to people. You know what I mean? Yep, 100% dude. So I guess at the end of the day, this is just a really beautiful Christmas. It is man, peace on earth, goodwill towards men, and let's eat fried chicken, right? And let's drink some Heaven Hill Green label, am I right? I think this is a good place, Brad. Let's press pause here.

26:03 Let's drink this discontinued fan favorite bourbon. What do you say? Let's get to it. All right, so today we are checking out Heaven Hill Green Label. Now, that is not the official name of this product. It's just called Heaven Hill Old Style Bourbon, but it has a big old green label on it. Brad. It is an age stated bourbon, six years old. And at the time I bought it, I think it was up to like 1799. But for a long, long time, it was known for being like a $10 bottle of whiskey. And it was, among bourbon drinkers, one of the biggest crowd pleasers and like an inside secret that you could get this bargain bourbon and it was just as good as top shelf stuff.

26:53 And we'll get into what happened to it, but I have very fond memories of drinking this bread. Yeah, honestly, you brought back, I think 3 bottles for me, one to keep for myself, 2 to give to friends. And if I'm being honest, Bob, I was not able to give one of those bottles away. So I cracked it open for this review, not having realized that it was discontinued. So I'm I'm sitting here like, man, I just cracked open a bottle that is coveted worldwide. Can I ease your conscience a bit about not giving those bottles to friends? I I'm down to my last bottle. It's been sitting on my shelf for probably 2 years now. I am well under halfway on that bottle and I had to give you some for this review not knowing you had another bottle on hand. So I would like to humbly request give me my sample back so that I can stretch this just a little bit more because like we said, Heaven Hill has discontinued this product. A few years ago, they released a Heaven Hill bottled and bond that carries A7 year age statement. So they're basically taking this stock and a couple other things and they were making this new product with it. It it came out at the height of this bourbon boom that we've been going through.

28:11 And it's $40. And I am told that it is not really any better than the $15 Heaven Hill Green label. And I'm just super bummed that this is not a thing anymore. Man, This was just like old reliable for me. And I hate corporate greed. Yep, it sucks. All right, let's review the. Whiskey. That's all. That's all I have to say. All right, this is a 90 proof whiskey, like I said, six years old. It uses Heaven Hill's standard mash bill, which is 78% corn, 10% rye, 12% malted barley. So no wheat in this bad boy, but there's quite a bit of rye. Brad, let's dive in. What are you picking up on the nose? The nose is beautiful, Bob. It's candy corn. It's cornbread.

28:54 There's some caramel, there's oatmeal cookie, and then a little bit, once you sit with it for a while, you get into that. Those rye baking spices kind of start to come through. But for the most part, it's a really nice, like fresh grain sweet mess of awesomeness. I am kind of regretting not being there with you right now for this fresh popped bottle because I think mine has oxidized a little bit. I think mine just kind of, you know, it, it's been sitting open for so long and there's so little left in the bottle that I just think it's kind of dulled at this point. I'm getting just a lot of oak, a lot of sawdust. And then you had a really nice note that I, I love, which was oatmeal cookie. I'm getting a little bit of that, but I think it's mostly because it reminds me of oats so much. It's not grainy, but it's like grain forward, if that makes sense.

29:47 And I wish that there was a little bit more of that brown sugar and caramel on my sample, knowing what it used to smell like when this bottle was fresh. I'm going to grate a little bit on a curve. I'm going to give this a 7 out of 10 on the nose. Yeah, I give it an 8 out of 10 on the nose. The palate for me turned a little more sweet. The there was caramel and vanilla coming through really strong. There was some some fresh, almost like a like a corn on the cob with some butter on it mixed with all the that rye that you were talking about. So that there's a really nice balance of flavors here that I gave it a 7 1/2 out of 10 on the palate. Your notes are so on point today man. Cornbread with salted butter is like a perfect description for this, except that it's just a little bit a little bit more potent rye behind that.

30:43 Like it's not sour, but there's a little bit of smoke, a little bit of bitterness to this as well to go with this really buttery mouthfeel. I like this a lot. Damn, I really want to come down to Delaware and try this like fresh bottle. Like usually, you know, it's not like wine where it whiskey goes bad, but there is some science behind the idea of like, especially if you've drank more than half the bottle. The earth takes its toll on your open bottle of whiskey after a while. And I would like to know what a fresh one tastes like. I'm vamping. I'm going to give it a 7 1/2 on the taste. Yeah, the finish here, there's baking spices, there's oak, the vanilla sticks around, and the oatmeal cookie goes from being like a sweet fresh baked cookie into tasting more like a regular nice bowl of oatmeal with a little bit of brown sugar on it. I like to finish a lot.

31:37 It comes up a little bit from the the palate and I gave it an 8 out of 10. Yeah, For me, I think honestly, the note that really hangs on the longest here is there's a little bit of Coca-Cola for me on the finish, but it's salted butter. Like there is just a little bit of saline to this that I wasn't expecting. And the buttery mouth feel and that taste of saline really leads me to I, I really do think about like putting some butter on a piece of cornbread or like a corn muffin. Really, really good. I like the finish a lot. It's long lasting for being a 90 proof $15 whiskey. I'm going to give it an 8.5 on the finish. Yeah, and the for the balance here, I think that there's just enough complexity here to keep the score somewhat high.

32:21 But honestly, Bob, this is just a really nice simple bourbon that checks all the boxes you wanted to check. So I gave it a 7 1/2 out of 10 on the balance. Yeah, I think I'm going to give it an 8. Like you said, it's it's not really, I don't know how to talk about this whiskey. It's not really anything to write home about, but it is just consistent across the board. It's really good. It's good enough that you could drink it neat, you could put it on a Rock, You could put it in an Old Fashioned, and it stands up really, really well. I prefer this flavor profile to something that's more oak heavy, like a Buffalo Trace. And I think that that's part of why I gravitated towards this so early on in my bourbon drinking journey. So yeah, I'm coming out to an 8 on the balance value is going to be an interesting one because you can't really buy it anymore. I mean, I'm sure you can buy it online. Brad, what are you seeing price wise for this? Yeah, Bob, unfortunately you really can't find this online anymore.

33:21 I I I tried to search for it and only one place came up for $175. Welp, I don't really know how to score this man. It is like a 0 out of 10 for $175. I would not recommend even looking at this for $175. I'm just going to score this as if it's 2017 and you can still get it for like 14-15 dollars. At that price this whiskey was a 10 out of 10. Like easily the best value in whiskey it it's even better than Rebel 100 Bob. Let's just say for the sake of argument that what we're scoring this on is a pour of whiskey at A at a whiskey bar.

34:07 Now they're probably charging. I don't know, 15 bucks a pour for this now. So you like you, you'd be paying as much for a pour of this as you used to for a bottle. With that in mind, I think I'm going to give it a six out of 10 on value. Is that fair, Brad? Yeah, I would say that that's fair. I I think that this is just an unfortunate reality of the whiskey world, that there's a lot of great whiskeys that just kind of get snapped up or, or they change hands and the recipe changes. What? What's that one? It's a blue label bottle and bottle. Early times bottled.

34:49 And yeah, didn't they change, you know, change hands at some point? So we don't know if it's any good anymore. Yeah, exactly. Like, like it's stuff like that that makes the whiskey industry kind of hard to follow at times. I mean, luckily there there is such a plethora of whiskey right now that you can find tons of great whiskey for 20 to $30.00. But let just let us have this one, guys. We're sad, all right? Brad, I'm coming out to a 37 out of 50 on this one. Where are you at? Well, if, if I give it my 10 out of 10 for $15.00 value, I would be at a 41. Let's let's come down a little bit. I'll, I'll give it an 8 out of 10 on value.

35:30 So I'll come out to a 39 out of 50. That puts us on average at a 38 out of 50 or 76 out of 100. I think that's a good spot for this. It's an above. It's a well above average whiskey whose selling point was its value. Like you can't get a six year age stated anything anymore for 15 or $20. And it just sucks because I think, am I overstating how good the whiskey is? Probably. But I am mourning a time gone by when American whiskey was in such little demand that you could get really good whiskey for 15 bucks.

36:11 Yeah, I, I mean, dude, I still think about when we were, we were back in grad school, 2016, 2017 and we're living in Kentucky and you can get a bottle of Eagle Rare for like 28 bucks. You can get this for 1415 bucks there. There was just so, so much whiskey available to you that hadn't gotten snatched up yet in the in the midst of the bourbon craze. Think about like, we were so poor back then too. And, and film and Whiskey Nation. I have been poor most of my life. I have never known poor like grad student poor because I didn't qualify for any assistance because I was a student. And Brad, you and I scraped together enough money to split a bottle of Eagle Rear.

36:57 And when I say that in 2023, it's because people assume that I'm we're buying it secondary and it's like $100 now. No, it was like less than 30 bucks. Yep. We would not be able, we would not have been able to start being bourbon drinkers in this climate. No, you know what I mean? But that's how bad things have gotten. Yeah, I, I remember going over to a friend's house and this is before you and I really even started drinking. And he was like, yeah, you know, my wife got me a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle for my birthday and, and she splurged for it and, and I, and, you know, I don't even remember how much she paid, but it was like a few 100 bucks. It wasn't $3000, Right, Right. So like, the fact that you could still do stuff like that back then is ridiculous and and sad. Folks.

37:46 That's just a sad, I was going to say. We're going to put make that like our our slogan film and whiskey ridiculous and sad TM. Brad, let's get back into talking about Green Book. What do you say? Let's get to it. All right, folks, that was Heaven Hill Green Label, a whiskey that we paired up with Green Book back in season 1 because of the green theme. I obviously should have paired it with Cutty Sark because that is a whiskey that is consumed in the movie. But to make up for that, Brad, we drank it in as sad of a fashion as Mahershala Ali drinks his Cutty Sark. So. Bro, we didn't even talk about that when we talked about Mahershala.

38:29 He is an incredible sad drinker. Sad drinker? Yes, Just like every bit of bitterness about his life comes out when he reaches down into his bucket of ice that holds his bottle of Cuddy Sark. My man drank 1/5 of Cuddy every night that is. The fact that he lived so long is staggering. Ridiculous. Yeah, yeah, just like him after his bottle every night. All right, Brad, it's time for us to get into Canada's favorite segment, which we call 2 Facts and a falsehood. Brad is going to try to stump your ball to our right and what is wrong? 2 facts and a falsehood.

39:13 That's right, 2 facts and a falsehood. The part of the show where I try to prove Bob wrong, which is very easy at certain times. Bob, I don't know what's your, what's your record is this year? I'm not keeping track this season, Brad. I am. I'm just going with God and believing that I will come out on top. The Lord is my strong right hand. All right, Bob. Well, getting into two facts and a falsehood fact number one, this film is dedicated to Larry the crow, a bird that hung around the shooting location. Vigo often cared for the animal after it had been hit by a car that's.

40:00 Great. Fact #2 This was only one of five films to win the Academy Award for Best Picture without being nominated for Best Director. The other films are Argo, Driving Miss Daisy, Grand Hotel, and Wings. Fact #3 Fairly attempted to use a variety of lighting techniques to highlight the difference in the world's between Mortensen and Ollie's characters, using more bounce lighting for Ollie and high key lighting for Mortensen. You know, I, it, it strikes me that we should probably explain what 2 facts and a falsehood is. Like we, we said, you want to stump me?

40:41 But folks, I think you can figure it out. It's Brad making up a fact within these three and I have to figure out which one's the lie. And you did a darn good job today, man, because I think all three of these sound like they could be true facts about this movie. You like the Larry the Crow fact? I'm going to say 3 is true #2 what was #2 again? One of only 5 films to win the Academy Award for Best Picture without being nominated for Best Director. I think that's true. I mean, I know that he wasn't nominated, so unless you're like really finessing it and there was actually like 6 movies, I'm trusting that you didn't do something that NIT picky. I guess number one's the falsehood. I don't like I want #1 to be true, but who knows? I'm going to say #1's false.

41:35 Bob, my absolute favorite 2 facts in the falsehoods are when I finish delivering the three facts and you immediately go, oh the falsehood is obviously true. Fact #3 is the falsehood. Bob. Interesting. No, I didn't think it was obviously true. It's that I didn't know that you knew that much about lighting. And when you said the word bounce lighting, I was like, oh, yeah, that's that's not Brad. Listen, no offense to you, but yeah, yeah, you know more about lighting than I figured you did. I underestimated you, man. If you know that much about lighting, you need to start taking better pictures for our Instagram. What the hell are you doing, man? Sorry, I'll go buy better lighting setups. Hey, nicely done, you got me.

42:27 Thanks dude. Yeah, that was a good one. All right, so wait, Larry the Crow or whatever the hell is, is a true. It's a true that is who the film is dedicated to. What the hell is this movie Brad? What a weird they dedicated it to a dead bird who got hit by a car. I don't know if the birds dead or not, it just said that the bird hung around the shooting location. Why would you dedicate it to an alive bird I don't like? Also, why did the bird not get put in the in memoriam at the Oscars that year? That's what we really should have. Had. That's the real. Question, Bob. All right, man, what do we have left to say about this movie?

43:07 I, I will reiterate, I think Peter Farrelly got an unfair amount of criticism when this movie took off at the award ceremonies. Now, he did not get nominated for best director and like, that's fine. Whatever. I think this is an exceptionally well directed movie and the things that people complain about, I think really all come back to the script. But when it comes to what's on screen, how it's depicted, you know, what is on screen versus off the lighting, the the way the movie shot, it's a really, really well made movie. And I think Peter fairly deserves, you know, if not an apology from people, I think he deserves to be taken a little more seriously. And like his pedigree as a director is, you know, he and his brother made these really farcical comedies. Like there's something about Mary and shallow how. And so people didn't want to take to him seriously as a director.

44:02 But you watch this movie and you would never know that that was what he had in his in his background, because this is such a well made movie. Yeah, that. And that's what that's what I really wanted to highlight coming in today, that at the end of the day, is this like a 9 1/2 out of 10 incredible Oscar best picture winner. Like, no, you know, it's, it's not that. Is it a really fun movie that is technically well made? Yeah. Like there's a lot of really well done things happening in this film and I think that it's, it's worth people coming back to. And I know I, I joked back at the start of the episode that like is the last time I've ever watched Green Book.

44:45 I, I actually don't think that it is like this is a film that I probably another four or five years from now, I, I think I would want to come back to and enjoy because it's just a really fun movie and the, the chemistry between Mortensen and Ali is impeccable and, and that's what really sells this movie for me. I do think that there there are elements of the story itself that, you know, you were talking earlier about like, like it's really see this happening in the 1960s. I think that they really air on the side of, I don't want to say harmless racism, right? But the only real hostile racism they face is is in the deep, Deep South.

45:25 And Vigo's racism is presented more as racism of ignorance, right? And then they even get into like, oh, he knows more about black culture than Don Shirley does. And, you know, I think that that a lot of people kind of pushed back on that element of it, that it ultimately presented like a very sanitized version of what it was really like to be black in America in the 1960s. And I think that's a fair criticism of this movie. Like it is a very palatable movie about racism. You can watch this movie and and feel very deeply for that character, but it doesn't challenge you the way that like do the right thing challenges you to think about the the very deep seated and rooted racism in this country.

46:18 And at the same time, though, there is something to be said about making a crowd pleaser. And I think that, like, you have to try to balance those two when you're criticizing this movie. Like not every movie is intended to be a gut punch when you walk out of the theater. And I think that especially whether or not Nick Valalonga like massaged the details of the story to make it more favorable to Tony Lip. And that's what people say about it, apparently. But like, I think that you need you need to have movies like do the right thing. And I also think you need to have movies like Green Book. And I know Spike Lee disagrees with me, but like, you can't show certain people a movie like Do the right Thing without them getting very defensive about it.

47:12 And I think that this is the kind of movie that you can ease into having conversations by showing people a movie like this. It has its place and and I think that within that place it's just a damn good movie. Yeah. Well, and at the end of the day, this film is a story about how in order to move past racism, you have to genuinely spend time with people of a different race. Like, like, like that's a very simple message I think we can all get behind where it's like, hey, if you want to get to be less afraid and less dismissive of things that you don't understand, you have to spend time learning and understanding those things. And I think that's kind of the message of the movie. Like, you know, And do they, is it a sanitized version or picture of what that might look like in real life? Sure.

48:05 But at the end of the day, like, we don't have to go to the movies to be disheartened by the state of humanity. I mean, if you asked me to make a top five list of like, or, you know, like make a syllabus of movies that depict race in America, this would not make my top five, right? Like it's just, it's, it's not that it's totally inaccurate. It's just that there are other movies that I would point to that that drill down deeper, that had a clearer picture and a more complex message behind them. But you also can't always put the onus on movies like this for not going as deep as you would want them to, you know what I'm saying? Like there just has to be a place for intro to Racism one O 1.

48:52 Yeah. And even in that picture, like I, I understand people push back on certain elements of this movie. I don't think it's a perfect movie, but I think that there are categories to this these kind of things. And I think that this movie is a really good example of one of those categories. Yep. Well, Speaking of categories, Bob, I think it's time we move into our final segment of the day where we pair this movie with another movie, usually from a similar category. So what say you make it a double Bob? We're near the end of the episodes of Things, listening to the film and Whiskey Show. Let's pair another film with this one. Even if it's struggling. It's the final segment of the day. Now let's make it a double. That's right. It's Let's Make It a Double, the part of the podcast where we pair a movie up with this one to make a perfect double feature. Brad, do you want to go first or do you want me to get mine out of the way?

49:42 I'll jump in first. I think that I would stick with the comedy route rather than the race relations route. I'm going to pair this with Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Also holiday themed. Also holiday themed. That's right. The warm fuzzies come back again. See what I did there? Nothing like a good cross country holiday, you know I'll be home for Christmas kind of theme. It just always works. Once again, the the chemistry between Martin and Candy and that is just impeccable that that's what really drew me to pair these two together. I'm. Going to pick a movie from almost the same year as Planes, Trans and Automobiles.

50:25 I'm going to go with 1989's Driving Miss Daisy. It is kind of like the obvious one to pair up because it's a movie about race relations. It is a movie that was highly criticized for presenting such a sanitized version. It's a movie that went up against a Spike Lee movie. This was the year that Do the Right Thing came out and Spike was kind of roundly rejected by the Academy. And then they heaped awards on Driving Miss Daisy. And I will say I think Driving Miss Daisy has been raked over the coals a lot more than Green Book. And I think that's why it would make an interesting double feature, because when you pair this movie up against Driving This Daisy, I think Green Book kind of looks like a masterpiece in in comparison. And I think it would make for a really interesting conversation around why do movies like this have the appeal that they do, especially among awards voters, and what has changed from 1989 to 2018, if anything, in the way movies like this are made. So they can make for a really fascinating double feature, if not as entertaining as the one that you proposed I. Would say people will have more fun with plain screens and automobiles.

51:36 That's my, you know, honestly, just just listen to Brad this week. Just ignore mine. All right. Man, it is time for us to give this movie some final scores. I feel like I've talked a lot in the back half so I'll just say this. It's a really well made movie. I think it's a 7.5 and it's the kind of 7.5 that like old fashioned 7 point fives like where it is understood that the movie is technically well made. Because I feel like nowadays when I give a movie a 7.5, it's like, well it was a Marvel movie and it kind of looked like crap and it was kind of directed like crap, but like it was enjoyable. So I'll give it a 7.5. It's way better than that.

52:17 But it's also like, at its core, this is a three out of four-star movie. Yeah, yeah, I think I'm a little bit higher than you on this. I'm going to give it an 8 1/2. Like, I think it's really entertaining. It's really palatable. It's really easy to come back to. And it's something that I appreciated what Peter Fairley and Nick Valalongo we're going for. So I, I, I enjoyed it, but it's, it's not out of, you know, it's not out of this world. 8 1/2. All right. So we're coming out to an average of an 8 out of 10 on Green Book, but we'd like to know what you guys think. It's been years and years since this movie came out. What do you think of it now that it's kind of settled into culture?

52:59 You can let us know on our social medias Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube at Film Whiskey. Or you can join our discord. We are on there every single day talking to you guys, the fans of the Film and Whiskey podcast. You can find a link to our Discord at the end of every single one of our show notes. Right next week it is time for us to dive into your favorite movie that you have ever reviewed on the Film and Whiskey podcast. It's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Bro, you can't make me. Should I, should I place bets as to whether you will like this movie more this time around? You, you go ahead and do whatever you want, Bob, you just do whatever you want. This was like the movie that could have ruined the podcast for us.

53:49 And some would say did ruin, Some would say we peeked at Green Book and never recovered. Kind of like Nick Val along. Yeah, exactly. All right, join us next week for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. But until then, I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad G. And we'll see you next time.