• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Film
  • DVD
  • Editorial
  • About ScreenFish

ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • News
  • OtherFish
  • Podcast
  • Give

values

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

What Will People Say – Culture Clash

December 15, 2017 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

What Will People Say was one of my favorite films at AFIFest this year. I wasn’t alone in my estimation of the work; it also won the Audience Award in the New Auteurs section. It is a powerful and engaging film in which two different value systems collide within the life of a teenager as she grows up with connection to two cultures.

Sixteen year old Nisha (Maria Mozhdah) is the dutiful daughter of Pakistani immigrants to Norway. Her family observes the ways of her homeland, and participates in the broader Pakistani community. But having grown up in the European culture, she is also a very normal Norwegian teenager. Her friends are Norwegian. She sneaks in and out of her bedroom window at night. One night her father discovers her boyfriend in her bedroom. He beats the boy. Police are called, and Nisha is taken into a shelter while she and her family try to deal with the situation.

Her father and brother then kidnap her and take her to Pakistan to live with family there and better learn the traditional values. She struggles to fit into this culture that she really doesn’t understand. She begins to adapt, but soon her teenage behavior causes shame to her Pakistani family which forces them to call her father to come get her. She is caught in the midst of trying to fit into cultural ideals that she really doesn’t understand or accept. But this is her family. These are people who love her and have raised her. But how can they tolerate behavior that goes against all they have ever known? And how can she adapt to such a world when she has been raised in a western ethos?

I’m sure it makes a difference that I’m watching this with western eyes. (And that it is made with a western perspective.) But even though the Pakistani ethos may seem harsh from our perspective, it is treated with the respect that it deserves. When Nisha’s parents worry about how others will think of them as a result of Nisha’s actions, it is because honor is so important in their culture. Even after years of living in Norway, her mother is embarrassed when her husband makes her dance with him with friends present in their home. Such mores are hard to escape. And in fact, because of what Nisha has done, the family is being ostracized by other Pakistanis. And even though they are hurt and angry, Nisha’s parents continue to strive to do what they feel is best for Nisha and her future. The connection between Nisha and her father is front and center in showing the loving, yet often hostile relationship.

The conflict arises when the western value of individual freedom (especially as it plays out in adolescence) is added to the mix. Nisha has been raised within this culture as well as her family’s culture. This is her natural environment. And in reality, part of the reason for her parents coming to Europe was for such freedom and the opportunity it provides for their children. It is not only Nisha who is conflicted over these values. Her father also has this struggle. But the gap between her first generation father and 1.5 generation Nisha gives each a different perspective.

The real question posed by the film is if these two different value structures—each valid within their cultures—can coexist. Is it possible for Nisha to live the life her parents want for her and the life that she has been told can be hers from the European culture? And if she must choose, what will the cost be? This is an issued faced by many immigrants from various cultures as then adapt to new homelands. It can also be a concern for families in any culture when there are changing value systems—and let’s face it, the world and its values are constantly shifting. Parents of each generation struggle to teach children the values they were raised with that may now seem passé.

It is hard to imagine an ending that is satisfactory for all involved, and the film doesn’t find one. Rather it sets in motion even more questions of how these lives will play out in a changing world. Perhaps freedom is not an ultimate good, any more than honor is. Yet both are worthy values to cultivate in people and in society.

 

Filed Under: Film, Film Festivals, Reviews Tagged With: AFIFest, coming-of-age, family drama, Iram Haq, Maria Mozhdah, norway, Pakistan, values

Primary Sidebar

THE SF NEWS

Get a special look, just for you.

sf podcast

Hot Off the Press

  • The Ultimate Playlist of Noise: Listening for Life
  • My Little Sister – Bonded for Life
  • WandaVision: Reviving the MCU in the Past
  • Good News: 1on1 with Paul Greengrass (News of the World)
  • From Dreamland to Jungleland, Pursuing Dreams
Find tickets and showtimes on Fandango.

where faith and film are intertwined

film and television carry stories which remind us of the stories God has woven since the beginning of time. come with us on a journey to see where faith and film are intertwined.

Footer

ScreenFish Articles

The Ultimate Playlist of Noise: Listening for Life

My Little Sister – Bonded for Life

  • About ScreenFish
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 · ScreenFish.net · Built by Aaron Lee