Based on real life, Hillbilly Elegy tells the story of a boy from the rural Appalachia region of the US "making it" despite a rough upbringing — and while the film has some big Hollywood names, it's also getting attention for all the wrong reasons.
As of today, it currently ranks as the fourth-most popular movie in Australia on Netflix.
The streaming service ranks its top 10 most popular streams by tallying what member accounts have watched over the past 24 hours, but viewers have to watch the given title for at least two minutes.
Here is your shortcut guide to Hillbilly Elegy.
What's it about?
Hillbilly Elegy, directed by Ron Howard, is adapted from the 2016 memoir of JD (James David) Vance, which came out around the 2016 presidential election that saw Donald Trump elected.
Vance is an American author and venture capitalist whose family is from the rural Appalachia region — where the film is set.
The region itself is massive, spanning across 13 states from southern New York to northern Mississippi, and its residents are known to suffer economic hardship.
The film showcases Vance's difficult upbringing as the book's excerpt describes it: "a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America's white working class."
It also covers alcoholism, abuse, trauma, and poverty as a young Vance goes on to become a promising Yale law student.
Who is in it?
- Amy Adams (Arrival, American Hustle)
- Glenn Close (The Wife, Crooked House)
- Gabriel Basso (Super 8, The Kings of Summer)
- Haley Bennett (The Magnificent Seven, The Girl on the Train)
- Freida Selena (Slumdog Millionaire, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle)
- Bo Hopkins (American Graffiti, Midnight Express)
- Owen Asztalos (Paterson, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul)
More on the main characters
Vance's mother, Bev, is played by Amy Adams.
Her character struggles with addiction and the role of caretaker falls to his grandmother, Mamaw played by Glenn Close.
It's Mamaw's tough love that pushes Vance to create a brighter future for himself.
Getting into character as the strong-willed Mamaw required a full transformation for Close.
The Golden Globe and Emmy-winning actor said she didn't want people to see the film and say, "'Oh, that's Glenn Close.'"
"It was really important for me not to be distracted by my own face," she said.
Adams says the film's exploration of cycles of trauma and how we break them are what drew her in.
She also appreciated the challenge of playing a character unlike those she's played in the past.
In meeting with the real Bev, she said she was able to inform her performance.
"It was really helpful to hear the family's stories of Bev," said Adams.
"And to really get behind … her own personal pains."
Why is it receiving so much hate?
The film has received multiple bad reviews thus far.
The Atlantic's headline reads: "Hillbilly Elegy One of the Worst Movies of the Year."
Vulture questioned "Who Is Netflix's Hillbilly Elegy For?" in their review.
Some critics put it down to awards season, saying the film hyped up the drama to get consideration for the upcoming Oscars, but also because the drama takes away from any real, core message in the film.
A Rolling Stone review headline summed it up as "A Bestselling Memoir Becomes Oscar-Season BS"
It added: "JD Vance's story of growing up poor gets the prestige-drama treatment — and ends up as a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing."
The film has been spoiled as "two hours of poverty porn" in an NBC opinion piece.
"Following Vance's lead, Howard has turned a community's moral failings and human anguish into Oscar bait for those looking to find yet another reason to scoff at the working class," the article said.
But some viewers question whether the political connotations of the film, and Vance's own political views, are why it's receiving bad views.
Loading
Loading
One Washington Post columnist wrote the best-selling memoir by Vance "was embraced as a crucial guide for understanding the rise of President Trump."
"However unintentionally, 'Hillbilly Elegy' was — and is — an argument that there is a limit to which politics can explain personal trauma, not proof that a single story can diagnose a nation."
Vance has appeared as a commentator on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and CNBC.
And as The Hollywood Reporter explains, during the week of President Donald Trump's inauguration in 2017, his memoir "was number one on the New York Times nonfiction best-seller list, propelled there in part because Vance was in the media helping to explain Trump's popularity among poor white voters to the rest of the electorate."
You can be the judge if it deserves all the slack.
Hillbilly Elegy is now streaming on Netflix.
ABC/AP
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiVmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTExLTI2L25ldGZsaXgtaGlsbGJpbGx5LWVsZWd5LXNob3J0Y3V0LWd1aWRlLzEyOTE4ODcy0gEnaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuYWJjLm5ldC5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzEyOTE4ODcy?oc=5
2020-11-26 04:22:00Z
52781200237394
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar