HILLBILLY ELEGY Views Skyrocket After Trump Picks J.D. Vance as VP
By Movieguide® Contributor
HILLBILLY ELEGY’s views jumped by 1,179% since Monday, when former president Donald Trump selected J.D. Vance as his right-hand-man for his potential return to presidency.
“The 2020 Netflix film, based on Vance’s 2016 memoir of the same name, was watched for 19.2 million minutes on Monday — a huge leap from the 1.5 million minutes the film was watched on Sunday, by which point Vance’s VP bid was already a sweeping rumor,” Variety reported July 16.
“Monday’s total comes out to an estimated 163,836 views. This is calculated by dividing the number of minutes watched by the film’s 117-minute runtime, which means, for example, that watching half of the movie would constitute half of a view, etc,” Variety reported.
The movie was the fourth most streamed film on Netflix, as of Wednesday morning.
CBS News reported, “Viewers watched the film for a combined 19.2 million minutes on Monday, the day Vance was picked as Trump’s running mate, compared with 1.5 million minutes on the prior day, Luminate said.”
The movie is based on Vance’s autobiography and came out on Netflix in 2020. It stars Amy Adams, Glenn Close, Owen Asztalos, Haley Bennett, Bo Hopkins, Gabriel Basso and Frieda Pinto. It was directed by Ron Howard.
“Gabriel Basso’s portrayal of Vance was ‘so wholesomely likable that the fate of his soul never seems at stake. His people may be haunted by the demons of Appalachia, but he comes off as a yuppie whose life has boiled down to: Will those demons stand in the way of my career path? Not if he won’t let them they won’t. That isn’t quite drama — it’s feel-good therapy,'” Variety said of the movie.
Per Variety, the movie received negative reviews, but it earned an 82% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Movieguide®’s review of HILLBILLY ELEGY reads:
HILLBILLY ELEGY is based on a memoir written by Lawyer J.D. Vance, who tells his family’s story from his viewpoint. The movie splices together scenes from J.D.’s past to correlate with events occurring in 2011. Back in the 1990s, J.D.’s mom, Bev, had a series of jobs and boyfriends. His grandmother takes care of J.D. when Bev gets belligerent. Meanwhile, his older sister, Lindsay, looks after J.D. as best as she can while keeping her temperamental mother at arms’ length. Can J.D. and Lindsay rise above the personal and social problems in their family?
HILLBILLY ELEGY is a sobering take on life among many Appalachian people and the white working class in Ohio and Kentucky. The acting is phenomenal. Director Ron Howard does a sensational job. HILLBILLY ELEGY has a strong moral worldview and some poignant Christian moments. Despite their dysfunctional family, the people love one another and want each other to overcome problems and succeed. However, the movie also includes frequent foul language and depictions and references to drug abuse and multiple marriages. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises “extreme caution” for HILLBILLY ELEGY.
Not only have the movie’s views shot up, but the book also rose to the top of Amazon’s bestseller list on Tuesday.
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