Based on the memoirs of new US Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance, rural elegy Batman remains one of the biggest movie flops of the past five years. The Ron Howard-directed drama, disguised as a major award-winning film with a multitude of stars, was a flop among critics and moviegoers alike. Despite receiving two Oscar nominations, including Best Actress for Glenn Close, it came away empty-handed and was almost immediately forgotten.
Now that Vance has been nominated to run alongside Donald Trump in the 2024 US presidential election, he and rural elegy It has come under increasing scrutiny as its popularity has risen. Now that the film is available to stream on NetflixA closer look at how people get lost and can't tell the difference. rural elegy It has become more complicated. It is not reasonable to pin our hopes on the Oscars, but it is not reasonable to exploit political interests.
Who is JD Vance?
Born in Ohio in 1984, J.D. Vance is a former U.S. Marine and current U.S. Senator representing his home state.After serving four years in the Marine Corps, Vance graduated from Ohio State University in 2009 and Yale Law School in 2013. In 2016, Vance's memoirs rural elegy It was published.He recounts his days living in rural Ohio and the culture clash he faced upon joining the Ivy League. In 2020, rural elegy The novel was made into a star-studded movie directed by acclaimed director Ron Howard.
Despite having bad things to say about Donald Trump throughout his tenure in Washington, D.C., Vance was selected to be Trump's Republican vice president in July 2024.Since the announcement, rural elegy The film gained popularity on Netflix and Amazon, revealing Vance’s upbringing and conservative political views. The film was promoted as a prestigious award-winning film, but was roundly dismissed by critics and moviegoers alike. Although it is now gaining more traction in the mainstream, the film remains problematic for all involved.
What is Hillbilly Elegy about?
The film takes place in Middletown, Ohio in 1997, rural elegy It is a domestic drama that explores class and cultural issues in the Appalachian Mountains.The story is told through the eyes of J.D. Vance (a young Tierney Smith, an old Gabriel Basso) and Explores his upbringing and coming of age with his drug addicted mother.Beverly (Amy Adams), his Kentucky grandparents, Mama (Close) and Papa (Bo Hopkins). Along with his older sister Lindsay (Hayley Bennett), J.D. struggles with family values and the ever-changing social norms of the Midwest.
He portrays himself as a victim of circumstances who rises above the turbulent changes his family is going through.J.D. contemplates the differences between his grandparents, his mother, his sister, and himself. When J.D. takes the same self-destructive path as his mother, his mother takes him in and teaches him tough life lessons that eventually lead to his enlistment in the U.S. Marines.
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With numerous box office successes and an Academy Award for Best Director, Howard is certainly not one to be questioned.
The film jumps forward 25 years to depict the evolution of the Vance family and how JD lost touch with their values when they entered Yale Law School.Vance meets and marries a lawyer named Usha (Freida Pinto), and eventually returns to Ohio to be near his mother and sister, while Bev remains sober for six years.
Failed attempt to win an Oscar
Despite the Oscar-worthy pedigree of the cast and crew, rural elegy The film was panned by critics upon its release in 2020. The consensus is that the Hollywood hype and desperate Oscar-baiting were more of an embarrassment than a truly deserved achievement. The film currently holds a meager 25% on Rotten Tomatoes and a low 38 on Metascore, with most of the criticism directed at Vance’s lack of emotional storytelling and unconvincing self-aggrandizement.
According to the critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes:
“As an awards season bonanza but with the spirit of a dull melodrama, Hillbilly Elegy goes a long way with a cast of fine actors in the not-so-deep South.”
The most common critical phrase about rural elegy This story is about the Oscar-worthy performance and the directorial brilliance of multi-award-nominated actor Ron Howard, but neither of them live up to expectations. According to Peter Travers of Rolling Stone:
“With a greater focus on simplicity rather than Hollywood ostentation,
rural elegy
Maybe it was more than just a missed opportunity.
Echoing this view, Owen Gleiberman of Variety magazine said:
“As long as Close is an award-worthy stormer (her performance is actually quite subtle),
rural elegy
Amy Adams gives some performances of her own, but despite her skill, she never makes us look at Biff with pity and horror.
Most interestingly, IndieWire's David Ehrlich criticized Vance's narrative style, stating:
“Watching him cut his losses and recommit to his personal success is presented in a way that is not only deeply unsatisfying, but also verges on becoming antisocial.”
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Hillbilly Elegy earns Oscar and Razzie nominations for Glenn Close for same role
Actress Glenn Close was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards and Worst Supporting Actress at the Razzie Awards for her role in Hillbilly Elegy.
The most vocal criticism has been of the Oscar-winning film's portrayal of Vance's view of poor Southerners, with the AV Club calling the film “poverty porn” and reinforcing “the stereotypes it's supposed to highlight.” The AV Club review headline called for an end to the war on the poor that has continued under the Trump administration, saying “A rural elegy may be the end of the Trump-era myth of the white working class.”
The final word goes to Alonso Duralde of The Wrap, who wrote:
“Hillbilly Elegy doesn’t care about the systems that create poverty, addiction, and ignorance; it just wants to pretend that the ability of a straight white man to rise above his surroundings means there’s no excuse for others not to do so, too.”
Vance's Vice Presidential Nomination Promises More of the Same
With J.D. Vance recently nominated to be Donald Trump’s running mate in the 2024 election, the “Trump-era myth-making about the white working class” isn’t going away anytime soon. On the contrary, Now that Vance is in the international spotlight, it is almost certain that he will continue to advocate for the same policies he adopted in rural elegy The call will be greatly amplified..
But despite the Amy Adams film being dismissed as untruthful, Vance is already backtracking on the beliefs he has put on the public record in his memoir and elsewhere. Despite accepting Trump’s nomination as his running mate, Vance has insulted Trump in the past. According to Reuters, he once compared Trump to Adolf Hitler in private. In public, Vance has called Trump “a disgrace” and a “moron.”
In 2016, Vance said that “Trump is unfit for the highest office in the land” (via The Guardian). Vance has also called Trump a “cultural hero” and described himself as “a non-Trump guy” (via Rolling Stone and The New Yorker). Perhaps most disturbing of all, Vance told The Guardian that “Trump is toxic and is leading the white working class into a very dark place.”
Despite the many criticisms leveled at the 45th president, Vance gladly accepted Trump’s agreement to become the Republican Party’s vice presidential nominee in the 2024 election. When asked about the changes that have occurred since 2016, Vance simply said he was wrong about Donald Trump. The truth is that Trump carefully selected Vance to advance his neoconservative agenda on women’s rights, immigration, health care, wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and other reactionary policies aimed at rolling back political norms and setting America back decades..
rural elegy Now available on Netflix.
