Shadowing Practice: Green Book VS Oscar Bait - Let Me Explain - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Listen, I got this movie back at TIFF where it was getting a mad amount of buzz.
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To be straight with you, I had seen those trailers and I thought they were the corniest thing in the world.
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Like if there was a formula to get nominated for an Oscar, they pretty much got every writer who could give them that.
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They put them together in one room so they can come out with this product of a movie.
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And for some reason, every audience has freaking loved it to the point
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that it even won the award while I was at TIFF.
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And I'm still here wondering, yo, in 2018, are we still falling for Oscar bait?
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Because I freaking love this movie.
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Let me explain.
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So this movie really does hit every cliche possible.
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It's corny.
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It's cheesy.
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It has those moments where people are talking like it's 2018.
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But, you know, just like entertainment in medieval times, it's all about the execution.
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The movie's based off of a true story that's written by Tony's son, who was a chauffeur to Don in the South, where he was guiding him to go to the only places that he could, as seen through this green book.
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And while I know that some people will scoff at a movie that, you know, kind of says that tensions can be fixed by just going on a road trip, I'm here to tell you that's not what the movie's saying at all.
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See, I just saw this as a buddy movie, and that's where it surprised me the most, where these guys go on a road trip, and one of them is the definition of elegance, while the other one is a complete and utter buffoon.
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Why are you breaking my balls?
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And I loved Viggo in this movie.
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I'm not even saying this as a diss, because this dude was freaking hilarious, and that's probably because one of the brothers who directed this movie was one of the guys who made Dumb and Dumber.
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Now I know that there's some controversy when it comes to Don's estate
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and them saying that the movie doesn't fully represent him and I'll kind of agree with that, I'll be 100% because while he may be the best person in this movie,
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there still seems to be some points where they don't fully give him all of the credit
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that he deserves but y'all already know Mahershala Ali's got it.
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If If there's one person who can take pride in his culture but also set straight all those race-baiting bloggers, it's this dude.
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try to connect with these characters and these people as honestly and as deeply as possible.
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And so, one spiritual practice,
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I don't necessarily feel like it's relevant unless it gives you
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a way into having more empathy for these people that you have to advocate for.
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So, but I'm proud to own that.
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See, at one point I just thought he was playing himself because Mahershala is the definition of elegance.
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He's got a better posture than playing from Ed, Edd, and Eddie.
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He's never losing his temper.
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Man's eating chicken like he's playing the flute
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and leave it to Ali to be able to deliver the most manufactured scene of the year, right?
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Where he literally just comes out of a car
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because he knows this is going to be the bit that they play for his nomination at the Oscars.
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He literally asked for them to pull over just so he can give his speech in the rain.
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And as soon as he's done with it, he just goes back into the car knowing that he could have set it inside the whole time, but then where's the fun in that?
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Obviously not all of it happened the way that the movie portrays, but to me the difference between a film like this and Bohemian Rhapsody, two movies that I personally did enjoy,
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is just how they flesh out the characters, you know?
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The fact that this movie just focuses on the trip, it makes those two hours go by super quick.
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The fact that Mahershala Ali's character is barely like a quarter of what they could have done with them, yet they're still able to be super compelling is really cool,
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and the The fact that Tony is such a complete and utter buffoon makes you laugh at everything this guy says.
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Not to mention this movie has Linda Cardellini who y'all know is a freak and a geek.
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Like I would personally watch anything with her in it, right?
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She's the only redeeming factor when it comes to Hakai's sorry self.
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I saw two seasons of Bloodline just cause of her and even with that new movie La Llorona that's coming out, you know, I had a bunch of people on Twitter asking me
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and tweeting me about the whitewashing in that trailer
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which I was astonished to hear so I broke my of not watching trailers, went and saw this one,
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and, well, you know, maybe we should just wait for the movie to judge it, you know guys?
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What I'm getting at is that a movie can be Oscar bait and still be enjoyable.
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You know, this movie is the definition of an audience pleaser, and while Film Twitter sees it as a bad thing, I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
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I'm not saying it's the best movie of the year, I'm not saying that it's gonna beat out everything else when it's at the Oscars, but what I'm saying is that this movie earns its charm.
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It has great performances from Viggo, who literally gained 20 pounds for the role.
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Mahershala Ali, you already know, is one of the greats.
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And like I mentioned, it has Linda Cardellini.
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So, if there was one movie that I would recommend for you to see this winter, it's Widows.
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Shout out to all the peeps on Twitter who are always tweeting out our videos.
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And again, I'm not saying this is one of the best movies of the year.
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There were some scuffles happening because this movie was getting all the awards.
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This movie's doing crazy on Rotten Tomatoes, but I'm telling you, after seeing that trailer and thinking that it was supposed to be extra corny, It's still corny, but I enjoyed this movie a lot more than I thought.
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This is definitely the definition of an audience pleaser.
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I think it's enjoyable.
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I can't see anyone coming out of it hating it, but I can definitely see this being that one movie
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that gains a little too much traction at the Oscars and maybe wins an award or two, and then people overly want to hate it because of that.
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But that's just my opinion on it.
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I'm curious to know your thoughts down below.
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What's the other big movie that you're looking forward to seeing?
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Let me know down below in the comment section what your favorite Linda movie is out there and don't forget to comment, like, and subscribe, and I'll send you the original recipe.

About This Lesson

You're practicing English with "Green Book VS Oscar Bait - Let Me Explain" using the Shadowing technique — a method originally developed for professional interpreter training.

Focus on sounding like the speaker — not just repeating words. With 15–30 minutes of daily practice, you'll build real-world speaking confidence.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.