People are dunking on JD Vance film ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ following announcement as Trump running mate

16 July, 2024

Hillbilly Elegy

Since Donald Trump named J.D. Vance as his vice presidential pick for the 2024 election race, people have been piling in on the film version of Vance’s memoir, Hillbilly Elegy.

The 2020 drama film was based on Vance’s 2016 memoir of the same name. Starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close, it told the story of the author’s journey from a disadvantaged Appalachian upbringing to a successful professional life.

On Monday, Trump picked Vance, now the junior senator from Ohio, as his running mate for the upcoming election, despite the fact that Vance spent several years as one of the most outspoken critics of Trump in the Republican party.

Even at the time of Hillbilly Elegy’s original release, it garnered a number of negative reviews, with many critics labelling its storytelling as “bland melodrama”, while its depiction of the Deep South was criticised for lapsing into stereotypes. It currently sits on a 25 per cent score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

In a two-star review of the film, NME wrote: “It’s hard to imagine [director] Ron Howard having anything other than the best intentions when he took on this adaptation of J.D. Vance’s bestselling 2016 memoir, published at a time when those depicted in it decided Donald J. Trump would be their best bet for an improved life.”

“Perhaps he saw it as an opportunity to shine a light on an overlooked chunk of the population. Unfortunately, the director’s Netflix drama about bygone days in middle America has ended up a blinkered depiction of the working classes.”

With Vance’s elevation to Trump’s running mate fresh in mind, many have taken a moment to reflect on Hillbilly Elegy’s legacy.

“JD Vance grew up 15 minutes from where I did so the fact that he called his book ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ will never not be insanely funny to me,” wrote on X/Twitter user. “Like, dude you grew up in the suburbs of Western Ohio.”

Another wrote: “Man I fucking hate Trump but I REALLY FUCKING HATE JD VANCE. Half my family is from/lives in Bell County Ky (real poor hillbilly Appalachia) and this goddamn grifter makes my fucking blood boil. Made his name pretending a life he never knew. Absolute scum, liar, loser.”

See some other recent reflections on Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy below:

“I think the themes of this movie are very universal,” Adams told NME in 2020, in response to the film’s original negative reviews.

“Whether it be generational trauma, whether it be just examining where we come from to understand where we’re going and who we are. I think the universality of the themes of the movie far transcend politics.”

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