Hillbilly Elegy

 

Hillbilly Elegy

 Through the years, there were a few New York Times columnists that I enjoyed reading.  Unfortunately, Tom Friedman, David Brooks and Ross Douthat have all joined the New York Times anti-Trump train into leftist bias.  There are still smatterings of objectivity in Brooks, and sometimes more so in Douthat, but all three of these writers have become indistinguishable from the left-wing media mob.  These guys are a far cry from truly enjoyable books like Friedman’s “The World is Flat”, and Brooks’ “Bobos in Paradise”, of years past.

 Ross Douthat here comments on Ron Howard’s movie “Hillbilly Elegy”, and the bad rap it is getting from movie critics.  I agree with Douthat that the movie will not win a bunch of awards, compared to J.D. Vance’s book of the same name, but it was not that bad, and some of the acting, particularly by Glen Close, was great.

 As I’ve commented before, J.D. Vance’s book was a sociological, in in depth look at opioid addiction and alcoholism in small town America, and how our society is affected.  Although the “Hillbilly” in the title pertains specifically to Northern Kentucky and Southern Ohio, I am originally from small town Massachusetts, and it equally applies there, as well as to thousands of small towns throughout America.  The movie is a more shallow, personal slice of the issue than  Vance’s book.

 https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2020/12/31/what-explains-the-movie-critics-loathing-of-hillbilly-elegy/#slide-1

Ray Gruszecki

December 24, 2020