J.D. Vance is not woke

“Hillbilly Elegy” chronicles J.D. Vance’s upbringing in a struggling, working-class family in Middletown, Ohio, highlighting the challenges of poverty, addiction, and instability, while also emphasizing the resilience and values of his Appalachian roots. I found myself alarmed by J.D. Vance's troubled childhood. Also, there is an inaccuracy in the film: Vance was born in Middletown Ohio, not Appalachian Kentucky. However, there is nothing woke, despite it being a Netflix production.

This movie is a hard, hard watch. It starts out sweet enough with an attempted drowning, then turns sour with no relief until an hour and a half in. As a teen, J.D. was mixed up with drugs, probably a result of his mother being an addict, likely stemming from her father being an alcoholic. Such problems tend to be inherited.

As shown in the film, Vance overcame his troubled childhood and went to Yale. That is a potential red flag. Conservative lawyer from Yale? Bill Clinton, John Kerry, and both Bushes graduated from Yale. Please don't be another Pence. Please don't be a member of the secret society Skull and Bones like both Bushes and Kerry.

The bottom line is that this movie caused me to unexpectedly lose faith in J.D. Vance as Trump's selection for Vice President candidate. Yes, I'm trying to review the movie, not talk politics, but that was my primary takeaway. I come from the same general background as Vance - I have an Appalachian family, and I grew up in the suburbs of Cincinnati, but without any drugs or alcohol in my family, and I also went to a prestigious university. Even our mothers bear some similarity, leaning too hard on a teen son for support. He is who I would be if I had had an absolutely horrible upbringing and childhood friends who were losers instead of nerds.