Elegy for a Flop
By 
Opie has much to answer for.
Hillbilly Elegy is pure hagiography, an oblivious love letter to a secret and not-so-secret deplorable. It’s an origin story about how a poor white boy who is more self-disciplined and, consequently, morally better than everyone around him (particularly his mother), grew up to have a seat at the table with the wealthiest, most destructive assholes in the world.
Ron Howard spent $45 million of Netflix’s money to make a superhero origin story for a man who turned out to be a supervillain. Even that’s too kind. Vance isn’t a supervillain; he’s the lunkheaded henchman who yells, “And stay down!” after the bully has knocked a geek to the ground. Vance is not Lex Luthor: he’s Jimbo to Donald Trump’s Nelson Muntz.
Read the rest; it’s all pretty good. Howard had better be bundling some serious donations to Harris-Walz and to every other Democrat he can find across the country; penance is required.