“Green Book” shouldn’t have been able to win. In an era where representation and diversity is of paramount importance, it was another movie about race relations from the perspective of the white man. The reviews were middling, it didn’t have a Best Director nomination, it lost at the Writers Guild Awards and it was up against Netflix’s big-money campaign for the year’s clear critical favorite, “Roma.”
“Green Book” should have been the wrong movie at the wrong time, too divisive to be named Best Picture at the 91st Academy Awards. But this was a year when almost everything was divisive — there was no consensus choice to sweep to a win, which opened the door for a film with strong negatives to win the top prize, because it also made a lot of people feel good when they saw it.