"Surprise! The Toronto Film Festival audiences have voted for their favorite film. It was not Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper in 'A Star is Born'..."

"... or Ryan Gosling in 'First Man' or Michael Moore’s anti Trump doc 'Fahrenheit 11-9.' The winner of the Audience Award was Peter Farrelly’s 'Green Book,' a kind of 'Driving Miss Daisy' for the new generation. Viggo Mortensen stars as an Italian bouncer in the South, circa the early 60s, who has to drive around a famous musician, played by Oscar winner Mahershala Ali. They use the 'Green Book' which is a guide to restaurants and motels were blacks were allowed... Farrelly is usually not associated with award winning films... His credits include 'Dumb and Dumber,' 'There’s Something About Mary,' and 'Shallow Hal.'"

Writes Roger Friedman at Showbiz 411.

I like the idea of rising to prestige through comedy, so good for Farrelly.

Mahershala Ali won an Oscar for "Moonlight," which I didn't see, because I hardly see anything anymore, but he was in at least one movie I've seen, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," which dates back to the days when I saw almost all the movies that got excellent reviews.

Viggo Mortensen, on the other hand. I love him based on "Captain Fantastic."

Here's the trailer:



So it's a racial flip where the white character is low class and the black character is rich and polished. But as with "Driving Miss Daisy," the black character elevates the white character. What's unusual in the broad scheme of Hollywood history is that the rich character elevates the poor character.

Anyway, it looks good, even though I was disappointed to see Viggo Mortensen's sexiness submerged into a brutish character... and yet, that worked like mad for Marlon Brando in "A Streetcar Named Desire." But I like my Viggo in Captain Fantastic form. Here he is talking to Conan O'Brien about my favorite movement in "Captain Fantastic," when he's completely naked and casually sipping coffee in a public campground and — to someone who stares — says "It's just a penis. Every man has one. We're all animals of the earth."

Commenter — without realizing it — takes my side in what has been a 2-day debate between me and Meade.

In the comments to yesterday's post about "Captain Fantastic," robother said:

I read the end of the movie as pure fantasy in his head after leaving Albuquerque. If not, The Man is far more benign and forgiving than Chomsky, Mortenson's character or even I imagine.

Thank you! And spoiler alert for those who haven't seen the movie. (You can stream it from Amazon, here. Please do that first, then join this discussion.)

"What kind of a crazy person celebrates Noam Chomsky's birthday like it's some kind of official holiday?"

Just one of the many great scenes in "Captain Fantastic," which Meade and I watched on streaming video last night. I give it the Althouse seal of approval. You can stream it here. And let's talk about it!

I enjoyed listening to Tom & Lorenzo talk about that movie in this podcast. Tom was outraged at the Viggo Mortenson character, calling his treatment of his children "child abuse" and said that because the man was inculcating left-wing politics in his children, viewers were not going to be able to detect the badness of his fathering.

That resonates with something I said to Meade immediately after watching the movie (and before listening to Tom & Lorenzo): This movie would be experienced very differently by someone with left-wing politics, someone who actually thought Noam Chomsky was great. Things we found hilarious — and also painful — would read entirely differently. I think this was Tom's problem, but it forced Tom to see that there's something abusive about inculcating children with politics (he just thought the common people needed clearer instruction, which would have been there if the father's politics were right-wing or Christian fundamentalist).

The movie is complicated, hilarious and dramatic. A father is sort of leading his band of 6 children against the world. He's both good and bad. And the grandfather who disapproves — played by Frank Langella — is also good and bad, even though he's in the position that would normally be The Villain. (He's trying to take the children away.) There's a great dinner-table scene where the 6 children try to relate to their cousins, and it's complex to think about. There's some of the feeling Meade and I remember from many movies circa 1970 where the people who reject American society are morally and intellectually better, but that's also challenged as one of the boys yells at his father for making them into "freaks."

And I just want to say: Viggo Mortenson is 58 years old. He looks great. And we got a comprehensive look at him at one point.