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rust belt

Hillbilly Elegy – Family Turmoil

November 14, 2020 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

“Where we come from is who we are, but we choose every day who we become.”

J. D. Vance’s bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy has been brought to the screen by Ron Howard. The memoir recounted Vance’s childhood in the Ohio Rust Belt, where he was raised by a mother struggling with addiction and his grandparents who came from rural Appalachia. After spending time in the Marines, Vance went on to college, then Yale Law School. The film carries the story arc, but comes up short on the kind of insight that Vance brought to the book.

HILLBILLY ELEGY: (L to R) Haley Bennett (“Lindsay”), Gabriel Basso (J.D. Vance), Amy Adams (“Bev”). Photo Cr. Lacey Terrell/NETFLIX © 2020

The film focuses on the troubled family relationship. As Vance (played as adult by Gabriel Basso and as a youth by Owen Asztolos) is preparing for interviews for a summer internship at a prestigious law firm (a job he needs to be able to continue law school), he gets a call from his sister that their mother Bev (Amy Adams) is hospitalized because of a heroin overdose. He has to make a long drive from New Haven to Ohio, deal with trying to get his mother in to rehab, then drive back in hopes of making an important meeting.

As the trip plays out, we see flashbacks to his youth. His mother, while loving, constantly battled substance abuse. The more nurturing relationship in his life was his grandmother, Memaw (Glenn Close). Memaw was a no-nonsense woman who embodies the values of hard work and honesty that Vance, in his memoir, associates with the rural Appalachian community. After one of Bev’s breakdowns, J.D. moves in with Memaw, who pushes him to excel in school.

HILLBILLY ELEGY: (L to R) Haley Bennett (“Lindsay”), Glenn Close (“Mamaw”),Owen Asztalos (“Young J.D. Vance”). Photo Cr. Lacey Terrell/NETFLIX © 2020

The film becomes not so much a story of those values as a story about a family struggling with addiction. It becomes about J.D.’s mixed feelings about his love for his family and the struggle to succeed in another world. That was all a part of the book, but the book became such a success because it offered much more.

Films by their nature have a great deal of voyeurism. We are watching other people’s lives from a distance. The same is true of memoirs and novels. In his memoir, Vance took us into the white working-class culture that he grew up in. He does not look down at it. He values it. He shows us the trials, frustrations, and the values that have led to alienation. The voyeurism of the memoir seemed to lessen the distance the reader might have felt in thinking about Appalachia and the working-class. The film boils down to a less helpful voyeurism. We watch a family in its pain, but we are always a bit removed.

HILLBILLY ELEGY: (L to R) Glenn Close (“Mamaw”), Amy Adams (“Bev”). Photo Cr. Lacey Terrell/NETFLIX © 2020

When the book came out in 2016 (a few months before the election of President Trump), it served as a kind of bridge between two segments of our society. Vance has a foot in both worlds. He knows just how easy it is to settle into despair. But he also exemplifies the ability to advance through a strong work ethic. Early in the film we see J.D. panicking at a formal dinner over all the silverware. But we can tell that this is a world that he is growing into. That social and political insight were the strength of the memoir, but is missing from the film.

Hillbilly Elegy is playing in select theaters (where open). It will be available on Netflix on November 24.

For audio of our conversation with Ron Howard, click here.

Photos courtesy of Netflix.

Filed Under: Film, Netflix, Reviews Tagged With: addiction, based on a book, family drama, rust belt, values

Working Man – Jobs and Work

May 5, 2020 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

“A person needs a job to survive, but you need work to feel like you’re worth something.”

Working Man, from writer/director Robert Jury, reflects a story that has been playing out in many communities, especially in Middle America. When plants close, putting people out of work, there are many levels of loss. In this film we walk with one of those who seems to have lost not just a job, but a sense of purpose and worth.

Allery Parkes (Peter Gerety) has worked at a plastics plant for decades. Each day he makes his lunch and walks to work. He does his job. He comes home. But today is different. He makes his lunch and walks to work. At 2:00 all workers are called off the job to collect their last paycheck. Others grumble that they made them put in a half day’s work just to get their check. But Allery stays at his machine, doing his job as he has every day since forever.

He’s lost for a few days. His wife Iola (Talia Shire) worries about him. Soon he is back to his old habits. Make lunch. Go to work. Come home. Except the work part is breaking into the factory and working. With no power all he can do is clean everything. And so he goes day after day. Until a neighbor and co-worker, Walt Brewer (Billy Brown) takes notice and follows him. Walt figures a way to get the power back on. When other co-workers note that something is happening, Walt tells them that he’s called the customers, and they want them to finish the contract. They have a week’s work to do. Every one joins in to meet the deadline.

The workers are ecstatic to have this work, and the hope that the company will see the value of keeping the plant running. But there are serious wrinkles that bring that hope crashing down. Allery has never been a leader, but the community looks to him for vision. When he discovers the truth, he has the hard job of bringing bad news. Both Walt and Allery have parts of their past they don’t want to deal with. But they cannot move on with their lives until they confront their personal demons.

At the beginning of the film, we are drawn to Allery. Gerety does an amazing job of showing us his emptiness and loss during the first 20 minutes. All this with very little dialogue, just his portrayal of Allery’s daily activity. Allery’s sense of loss and lostness fill the screen.

It is important to note that as we await to see what the economy will be like in the months following the corona virus shutdown, it is not unlikely that there will be significant job losses. Even during the shutdown, there are many people who are out of work and may or may not have jobs to go back to. There will be small businesses that will not make it through to the recovery. Many of those people may well feel like Allery and his co-workers. They understand that jobs are important, but so too is having a purpose that we often find in the work that we do. It is more than about paychecks (although we surely need those); it is about getting up each day and having something to do that matters.

Filed Under: Film, Reviews, VOD Tagged With: rust belt, unemployment

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