Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) — PASS

Green Book (2018) — PICK

 

Peter Farrelly’s crowd-pleasing “Best Picture” winner Green Book, now available in a number of home-video editions, including 4K Ultra high-definition and Blu-ray, has been called Driving Miss Daisy in reverse.

Set in 1962, the fact-based film stars Viggo Mortensen as “Tony Lip” Vallelonga, an Italian-American bouncer, and Mahershala Ali as celebrated pianist Don Shirley, who embarks on a concert tour of the Deep South with Tony as his chauffeur and bodyguard.

The title refers to the Negro Motorist Green Book, a guidebook for black road-trippers in the Jim Crow era, offering guidance on accommodations and establishments open to black patrons.

Somewhat sanitized and streamlined both in regard to the racial theme and a brief incident involving Shirley’s alleged homosexuality, the film’s best assets are the entertaining leads.

Only the most ardent fans of the Potterverse need check out Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. The spinoff franchise has become so mythology-bound that it’s impenetrable to casual viewers, not to mention really boring.

 

Caveat Spectator: Green Book: Pervasive racial slurs; brief, discreet homosexual theme and fleeting non-explicit nudity; fleeting violence; crude language, cursing and profanity. Adults.