The biggest takeaway from this keen insight into what makes red staters tick was, unfortunately, the rock-solid revelation that White Privilege exists even among the most dumpsterrific of white trash. While the story of the Vance family is neither proud, nor elegant, it is undeniable that the story –all else being equal- would have been worse, probably much, much worse, had the Vances been a family of color. And if this tiresome tribute to redneck-porn doesn’t make you see White Privilege for what it is, white America, you never, ever will.
First off, I call bullshit. The biographical drama Hillbilly Elegy is told in two timelines – the first in 1997 introduces the potato-sack-like teenage JD Vance (Owen Asztalos) as a kid with a bad attitude, a crappy family, and worse friends. In the latter timeline, the adult potato sack version (Gabriel Basso) is a Yale law student having to choose between interviewing for a job and “saving” his drug-abusing mom (Amy Adams) 1,000 miles away in Hillbilly, Ohio.
The film implies that JD’s inability to make this interview will cost him any chance of a summer internship. I want to remind my readers that JD is a Yale law student. Yale and Harvard are the only schools that supply Supreme Court justices. My cursory research indicates that there are fewer than 700 Yale law students and over 6,500 law firms in NYC alone. I would, in fact, bet that there are more law firms in NYC than there are Ivy League law students. You mean to say the average future Yale lawyer is hard-pressed find internships between school years? Bullshit. All the average Eli lawyer need do is pass the bar and, hence, will become employable forever. Giving me this conflict as the major plot is both condescending and inane.
That, however, is only a small reason why I hate this film. Adult JD is willing to get into a fistfight over his druggie mom (way to break a stereotype, pal). Use your words, JD, your words. Through past clips, we learn that Bev (Adams) is an awful person and a worse mother. Apparently, we are supposed to feel for JD precisely and entirely because of how terrible Bev is. Gosh, I wish life worked like that. Here’s the astonishing thing: Bev was -apparently- salutatorian of her own class of 400. Presumably, this happened before the bout with teen pregnancy that “ruined” her life. In fact, there isn’t a single moment in two hours of film suggesting even once that Bev has an IQ higher than a turnip. OTOH, we see Bev engage in pretty thievery, uncontrolled violent impulses, and lots and lots of drug abuse. In other words, plenty of things that describe folks who have no sense that anything exists beyond right now and nothing describing a person who understands life exists beyond today.
Now, anyone can become an addict. Anyone regardless of IQ or demographic. But such actions never describe wisdom of any kind. Bev was a salutatorian? Geez, if 99% of hillbilly voters are stupider than Bev, yeah, it’s suddenly very easy to see how Trump got 74 million votes.
And –here’s the important part- Bev was never given the same life path that one gives a black drug addict in our society. Think about it. Think about it honestly. America chews up and spits out addicts of color along with their families. If the Vance family is black, what are the odds of JD ending up at Yale law? Zero. Zilch. Nada. His mom would have an arrest record, and JD would develop one, too, because the police wouldn’t overlook his indiscretions and his redneck grandma (Glenn Close) wouldn’t be there to save him from his mother and set him on a better career path.
One cannot fail to notice the casting in this film. The coups of Amy Adams and Glenn Close as rednecks were divine; you guys can totally sell white trash. It’s the casting of teen and adult JD that gets me, however. At one point, either Owen Asztalos or Gabriel Basso was hired for this role, and everybody involved looked around and said, “Wow. That guy has all the appeal of a 
soggy ham sandwich … now, what we need to do is get another guy twelve years removed with exactly that appeal.” And they did. They freaking did.
Another thing I really didn’t like about this film was the bizarre lack of racism. To me, this simply shows the extent to which white America has deluded itself. Perhaps bigotry isn’t what red America is ALL about, but it’s not exactly hidden very well, now is it? No character in the film commented on the fact that JD Vance’s girlfriend is Asian-American, nor were there any slurs or animosity in the film among the interactions between black people and powhitetash. One relatively harmless Polish joke from Mamaw (Close) is the entirety of the bigotry represented by North Central Appalachia? Gosh, how enlightening. You represent an area of the country that voted red for 200 miles in every direction and yet somehow no part of that vote reflects racism? Congratulations. Your “failure to see race” resulted also in a subsequent failure to see racism. Oh, what’s that, Mr. Vance? “Redneck” is offensive to you? Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind when I see your kin folk sporting their “TRUMP 2020: F*** YOUR FEELINGS” t-shirts.
So a lot of people have lauded the outstanding performances in this film, to which I say, “so what?” Sure, give Glenn Close an Oscar; but when I film is this bad, I don’t really care how well it’s acted. Meryl Streep could have starred in Gigli; it’s still Gigli.
Hillbilly Elegy is a tedious and unintentional tribute to the fact that in the United States, even selfish crappy white people have it better than black people. And the film has no idea that’s the real story it’s telling. To Ron Howard –who has never, ever come close to making a film this bad- this is a biographical tale about a kid overcoming adversity. I see it as a boring biopic with a contrived controversy about a lumpy, unappealing kid who had it shitty and yet at the same time had it much better than his peers of color. If you applaud this film, you’re completely ignoring the hidden advantages Yale law school graduate and published novelist JD Vance has had in his life. But, hey, ignoring truth is what red America does best.
JD Vance’s memoir, what the heck?
His red life is summed up as “blecch.”
Call me a Negative Nancy
But “Elegy” is so fancy
It’s better titled Diary of a Redneck
Rated R, 116 Minutes
Director: Ron Howard
Writer: J.D. Vance, Vanessa Taylor
Genre: Sympathy for white trash (but good look to folks of color)
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: White folks with a hideous lack of self-awareness
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People with taste; this film was awful any way you look at it
** Editor’s note: I wrote the above and rated the film long before JD Vance became a political figure. Nothing I have learned about Vance since has convinced me that I was even a little bit wrong. Ron Howard gave tribute to an awful man with an awful cause.
