After reading J.D. Vance’s book Hillbilly Elegy last month (review here) I decided to watch the Ron Howard movie of the same name. When I did, I realized right away that I had seen the movie before. After watching it again, I checked my records, and sure enough, I had already reviewed the movie on December 29, 2020. I had given it 4 stars, and I stand by that review now.
It turns out, the movie was made in 2020, long before Vance became a senator, but after 2018, when he first thought of running against Sherrod Brown but eventually decided not to. He started his senate career with funding from Protect Ohio Values, a Peter Thiel super PAC, in 2021.
Just like after reading and reviewing Vance’s book, upon watching the movie again, I am seriously puzzled. Vance pulled himself out of a severely disadvantaged childhood and youth, eventually became a senator and then vice-presidential candidate. That is frankly astonishing when you witness his struggles in early life and his youth. His resulting set of values and outlook on life could not be more opposed to those of Trump. The two just don’t reconcile. This explains that Vance had to retract and change his statements about Trump in years past. The only explanation I have is that he purposefully is using Trump to gain access to the highest levels of the United States government. He is only 40 years old and obviously has a career ahead of himself, no matter what eventually happens to Trump.
This is a movie review, not a statement about a political candidate, but somehow I can’t separate Vance, the public figure, and his book and the movie about the book. The two come as a package.
For a movie review – I recommend you watch Hillbilly Elegy, then read the book, and then come back here and tell me what you think is going on with J.D. Vance and the weird persona he is projecting in this campaign.