Here’s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media & culture: 07/18/24
Rediscovering Hillbilly Elegy. Just about immediately after Donald Trump named Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his vice presidential running mate, his bestselling 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy and its 2020 movie adaptation (directed by Ron Howard) respectively soared to the top of the book charts on Amazon and soared in viewership on Netflix.
Here’s the film synopsis Netflix put out at the time of the film’s original release: J.D. Vance (Gabriel Basso), a former Marine from southern Ohio and current Yale Law student, is on the verge of landing his dream job when a family crisis forces him to return to the home he’s tried to forget. J.D. must navigate the complex dynamics of his Appalachian family, including his volatile relationship with his mother Bev (Amy Adams), who’s struggling with addiction. Fueled by memories of his grandmother Mamaw (Glenn Close), the resilient and whip-smart woman who raised him, J.D. comes to embrace his family’s indelible imprint on his own personal journey.
I reviewed the when it first came out and, regardless of current politics, I can straight up tell you it’s one on of the best and most-honest movies I have ever seen.
In the skillful hands of Ron Howard, Hillbilly Elegy is far more than a gritty version of Mayberry R.F.D. From writing to directing to acting, it renders a very believable, compelling and compassionate account of one real-life family’s struggles through poverty, psychological trauma, bad decisions and drug addiction to arrive at a place of forgiveness of the past, personal responsibility in the present and hope for the future. There’s not a false or overly sentimental note in the entire movie. The acting, as noted, is beyond first rate – especially from Glenn Close and Amy Adams who really lose themselves in their complex but relatable characters. It is now, as it was then, Highly Recommended.
If you go Rotten Tomatoes you will see that elite critics and the viewing audience are quite divided over the film. The critics gave it a measly 25% score while the audience awarded it a far more robust 82% grade. What else is new?
So, why the disconnect between ordinary viewers and the generally Woke critic class? Perhaps it’s because, while ordinary people connect to its universal story, the critics see a daisy cutter missile exploding the deliberately-divisive myth that privilege in America is a function of racial identity and not class identity. J.D. Vance’s family is certainly white and just as certainly are not among the privileged. There is, to be sure, plenty of unfair privilege in our country but its foundation is built on wealth and access to the levers of information, communication and power. That power is concentrated in the hands of a few globalist corporations who much prefer that the poor and working classes squabble with each other over history and identity than focus on present-day policies that enrich the lever pullers while throwing American workers under the proverbial bus.
On the bright side, the public embrace of Hillbilly Elegy demonstrates that a strong audience exists for quality storytelling that enlightens and honestly sows hope that, through good choices and, yes, a little government help (based on circumstance, not identity), individuals can be empowered to seize control of their destiny. We are not prisoners of history but students of it. We learn from our past (the good and the bad). One consistent lesson of the human saga is that enemies seek to confuse and divide their prey. From Aesop to The Bible to powerful modern-day books and films like Hillbilly Elegy, through the ages good storytelling has clarified the basic truths that help us survive and move forward. Unfortunately, for the past several years most of our stories have been filtered through the globalist gatekeepers. That, as they say, has been a game changer. But the game isn’t over.
How the movie impacts the upcoming election, if at all, is anybody’s guess but, as rich and meaningful storytelling, Hillbilly Elegy is hard to beat.
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Valerie Smaldone: Monty and I had been working together for a couple of years. Our first major project – and I mean major project – was a feature film that we produced together with a third partner, and I directed, called The Thursday Night Club. That was filmed in New Milford, Connecticut. It was a story about college students who were getting ready to start their lives and their careers and were very immersed in that (until) they find that there’s more to life through giving back to the world. Because they suffer a traumatic incident in their lives, they decide that the best way to really handle the grief and the trauma is to give back and to do good for other people. That was our first film. It was pop icon’s Gloria Gaynor‘s acting debut…So, Monty and I and a third partner decided that we wanted to do more after the film was over. Once the shooting is over it’s a little bit sad and everybody goes their separate ways but we decided we wanted to continue the idea of physically really doing good in the community through entertainment. That’s how Divine Renovation was born.
Monty Hobbs: It was born on an idea of giving back…When we see all these home renovation shows, they’re so over the top. They’re really unrealistic. So, we said let’s make something realistic. Let’s make something very humble. Let’s come up with a spiritual element but not beat people to death with it because we want people of all kinds to watch this show and generate the kindness and humility we have ourselves.
I told Valerie I’ve been working around reality shows for a few years and I got an idea. I pitched it to her and we started really thinking about the impact it would do. More importantly, we started thinking about the budget on how we could get this done. So, we utilized where I’m from – Wilmington, North Carolina – as our base. Then, lo and behold, after we got an outline I picked up the phone and I called Erik Estrada. I pitched him the idea.
JWK: Why Erik Estrada?
MH: Why Erik Estrada? He has the background. He started off in the (faith film) industry with The Cross and the Switchblade with Pat Boone. It still resonates with a lot of people. What we believe, John, is one thing. America was born on giving…Erik Estrada who was in our living rooms year after year (representing) American values (on CHiPs). We thought he would be the right person. Lo and behold, we just explained the concept and he was in. Fast forward, we’re in production of Divine Renovation Season 1 in Wilmington, North Carolina and we have five days to shoot it – during a hurricane!
VS: We had a very tight budget…at the end 2022 – which was hurricane season in Wilmington, North Carolina. I’m from New York City. We don’t have a lot of hurricanes. We do occasionally have nor’easters – but this was barreling up the coast. We had to figure out how to make it work. We had five days to shoot six episodes – and we did it!
It was quite a challenge but our main goal was to tell the story. We weren’t that interested in how pretty it looked – it was to tell the story of how we came along as a production company – as a team – identified people in need and helped to make their lives just a little bit better through home enhancements. Along the way, we provided what we call “the spiritual uplift.” In every episode we did some fun event that was meaningful to them. One veteran was an accomplished trumpet player. He no longer played the trumpet. We brought a trumpeter from the Wilmington Symphony to come and play Ode to Joy and surprise him on his property. So, little things like that that really make people feel like they matter is very integral to the storylines and to the mission of the kind of content that we produce.
VS: Everything survived! Nothing got destroyed at all!
MH: People can watch Season 1 on Tubi, Apple, Amazon Prime, UP Faith & Family, TCT…Season 1 is on eleven streaming channels as of today. Season 2 will be on Amazon Prime September 19th this fall. We’re adding more (platforms) constantly…Season 2 is a lot more in depth. The production values have tripled. The length of the episodes, the great deeds of the community, everything is enhanced for that one idea that we have off of Season 1.
JWK: Season 2 is called Divine Renovation: New England. Do you see this show as running multiple seasons like those HGTV shows.
VS: Sure. We want to go to different areas of the country. We’ve been to Wilmington. Now, we been to the Northeast. We have two or three different markets in mind (going forward). The idea is to go in and find individuals that want to be a part of this – and businesses. (It’s) very important (that) we bring the business community together because we can’t do it without them. What we’ve identified is that…they really want to give back to the community. There are honored when we ask them to join us.
So, we’ve identified those businesses who want to come on board and join us. We’ve identified not-for-profit organizations that help us find those in need. In some cases, we’ve actually helped the nonprofits. In Season 2 you’ll find that we worked with a homeless shelter and food pantry in Connecticut and a dog training facility for veterans and the disabled.
JWK: And your teaming up with Erik Estrada, this time on a children’s book.
VS: Yes, we are.
JWK: So, you’re not just a television production company. You’re a multimedia company.
MH: Sure…We wanted that level of joy, giving back and the message of kindness (to be attached) to something tangible.
VS: There’s a tremendous charitable component to (the book) and there’s a message involved with it. My husband, who recently passed away, had multiple sclerosis. I witnessed his struggles. I know that it’s really hard for children to…have a disabled parent or someone (in the family) with a chronic illness.
VS: I do not have children but I know of people with families where one of the parents – or both parents – are sick or disabled. It truly impacts the family. It’s not just the individual. It’s the spouse. It’s the children. It’s the pets. Everybody’s affected. I wanted to sort of normalize for families what it means to have somebody who’s disabled and not make it so huge that they are put on a pedestal. They’re just regular people that have to deal with this challenge.
So, we worked with the gentleman who wrote The Thursday Night Club, Steve Manchester, who is a very beautiful spiritual writer. They call him the Nicholas Sparks of New England. We worked with Steve and with Erik to write this story for children – not babies, but 11 or 12-year-old kids. What is is like to have a parent with a disability – and how can they help other people? It’s called Officer Erik and the Very Special Dad. Officer Erik meets this father and is very blown away by the fact that he is challenged and says “How can I help you?” He says “I don’t need help but I do know of some neighbors who are elderly and could use some work in the house.” That’s just the high concept of the book. We’re going to be giving a portion of the proceeds to an MS charity. We want to really make it a message about disability, about awareness for disability families – that people, no matter what their challenges are, can still do things for other people and can still improve the lives of other people.Our entire mission for the company, John, is Just Do Good. It’s like Nike, right? Just do it! Just do good – whatever that is!
John W. Kennedy is a writer, producer and media development consultant specializing in television and movie projects that uphold positive timeless values, including trust in God.
Encourage one another and build each other up – 1 Thessalonians 5:11