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Review of Hillbilly Elegy the Film

Review of Hillbilly Elegy written by Vanessa Taylor and directed by Ron Howard Rating *****

Everything I heard about this film was negative. “A dumpster fire,” said one film credit. “I watched it, so you don’t have to,” said another. It’s a good thing I didn’t listen to that nonsense. This Ron Howard film ranks right up there with his best work.

I can only surmise that the criticism of the film was political. Author J.D. Vance, who wrote the memoir for which the film is based, is a right-wing media darling. Ron Howard, the director, has made no effort to hide his anti-Trump sentiments. Any attempt to try and tie this film to the political landscape misses the point entirely. This film is a snapshot of one family and their individual struggles, while also touching on other themes such as family, poverty, drug addiction, health insurance, job loss, education, opportunity, and a host of other relevant topics.

Having read a few of the negative reviews, I didn’t have high hopes. I was looking for caricatures, overacting, and stereotypes. None of those appeared. What I saw instead was a realistic depiction of rural life that is recognizable to millions of people. I didn’t see any political viewpoints because the film was not about politics.

For every critic who complained about Glen Close’s performance, I say watch the end credits where there is home video of the real person she portrayed. The same is true for Amy Adams. Was her performance over the top? Not if you look at it from the viewpoint of a drug-addicted mother who became a parent at the age of eighteen.

While all the actors did excellent work, the two actors who portrayed J.D. Vance, Gabriel Basso and Owen Asztalos, were outstanding. The two performances blended into one.

If there were one scene that felt out of place, it would be the scene where Glen Close sets her husband on fire. It was a flashback scene, but there wasn’t anything leading up to it that would leave you to believe that the mild-mannered man seen throughout the film was capable of instigating such a response.

This is one time where the critics got it wrong. See it on Netflix.

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Review of Bad Education

Review of Bad Education written by Mike Makowsky and Robert Kolker, directed by Cory Finley Rating *****

This film could have devolved into a cast of stereotypes. A person entrusted with the finances of an entire school district betrays that trust and embezzles money to live beyond her means. It could have gone the other way and turn into a comedy as the woman, in this instance, an Assistant Superintendent, fails to cover her tracks. Instead, the filmmakers chose to tell a nuanced story involving real people with real conflicts.

There is one scene in the film, in particular, that shows how the screenwriters tackled this delicate balance. It involved someone beloved and respected by his peers. He tells a story of how it all started with a simple mistake of using the wrong credit card to buy a pizza. He realized the error after the fact and planned to correct it the next week. He never got around to fixing the mistake. More importantly, no one seemed to notice. You could almost see the wheels turning.

Another storyline that runs throughout the film involves a student reporter who, at first, claimed to be writing a “puff” piece about a planned construction project called the skywalk. It’s only because of her work that the true scope of the fraud becomes public.

Were the individuals involved in the misuse of funds bad people? Or was it a case of competent people who tried to justify their actions even when they knew what they were doing was illegal? The answer lies somewhere in between.

While the screenwriters deserve credit for laying the groundwork, the actors, including Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney, and director Cory Finley, pull the whole thing together to make it work. Don’t miss this one.

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Review of The Edge of Malice

Review of The Edge of Malice: The Marie Grossman Story by David P. Maraldi Rating ***

The Edge of Malice is a 360-degree examination of one particular crime and its aftermath. Marie Grossman stopped by a Burger King on her way to watch her son at a sporting event. That simple decision turned out to have life-altering implications for her and two black teenagers and their families. Richard Thompson and Christopher Martin (pseudonyms) needed to make some money to buy drugs. Their way of making money was to rob people. As Marie pulled up to the drive through the two teenagers approached her car. Richard Thomas pointed a gun at her and told her to let him into the car. Rather than acquiesce to his demand, she hit the gas pedal. Whether by accident or on purpose, the gun discharged, and the bullet entered Marie’s jaw. This book looks at that crime and its implications for Marie and the two teenagers.

The author is a lawyer who represented Marie in a civil lawsuit filed against Burger King and the franchise owner. The book, written years after the crime and subsequent trials, is broken into three parts. The first part deals with the crime and the search for the perpetrators. The second part deals with the criminal and civil trials. The last part provides updates on Marie and Richard Thomas after Richard had served nine years of his sentence.

The middle part of the book presents a behind the scenes look into both the criminal side of our justice system and the civil side as Marie seeks changes and reparations for her injuries.

As thorough as the book is in covering this incident, it misses the mark regarding sentencing disparities. A woman was shot in the face and suffered life-altering injuries as a result. There’s no question that both teenagers deserved time in prison. Richard Thomas cooperated with the police and the prosecutor, plead guilty, and testified against his friend. He received a sentence that could have kept him locked up for thirty years. Fortunately for him, he served only nine years of his sentence. His friend, Christopher Martin, chose a bench trial, claiming no involvement in the crime. He provided alibi witnesses.

The judge didn’t buy the alibi witnesses. He sentenced Christopher Martin to serve three concurrent sentences of ten to thirty years, meaning that he is still in prison and won’t have an opportunity for release until he has served at least thirty years. If you spend any time reading about our criminal justice system, you know that there are people who have committed heinous crimes that have received sentences that are a fraction of what Christopher Martin received. I would have liked a little more on the subject of sentencing and the unequal dispensement of justice.

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Expedition Happiness Quicktake

Rating ****

The idea was to buy an old school bus, refurbish it into a home on wheels, and then travel across Canada, the U.S., Mexico, and beyond. Along the way the couple, Valentina Mogli and Felix Starck along with their dog Rudi, planned to document their journey and turn it into a documentary film. Valentina would write songs along the way and use those songs to both provide some income but also serve as a soundtrack for the film. It was a lofty goal that the three managed to pull off with great success.

While they didn’t spend any time revealing what equipment they used (other than a drone), they proved that you don’t have to have an entire film crew to make a compelling documentary. I would love to read about the technical side of their journey. What cameras did they use? What about sound? Lighting? Editing? The drone footage is put to good use to not only show some of the vistas along the way but also to show the school bus from above as a transition between destinations. Tieing it all together is Mogli’s moody soundtrack.

There have been many books from others who have taken similar journeys. This is one case where film accomplishes so much more. I loved following along on their epic road trip. As a dog owner, I also enjoyed watching Rudi, especially when Rudi started to show his displeasure with the all the travelling.

As grand as the sights and sounds and friendships made are, what makes them memorable is that they are shared experiences. That’s the message I think this film provides more than any other.

The film was made in 2017. It’s non-political, but there are a few references to U.S. immigration policy. Catch this one on Netflix.

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Review of the Netflix docuseries Trial 4

Rating **** 1/2

Sean Ellis and Rosemary Scapicchio

Nineteen-year-old Sean Ellis goes to a Walgreens to buy some pampers. Days later, police charge Ellis and a friend for the murder of a Boston police officer. The police officer, John Mulligan, was shot five times in the face in the same Walgreens parking lot at around the same time that Sean and his friend were there. Both men are eventually convicted and sentenced to life in prison. This eight-part Netflix docuseries follows Sean through a series of trials and investigations as he tries to prove his innocence.

The murder occurred in 1993. Both Sean and his friend, Terry Patterson, are black. As is the case with most wrongful convictions, there is a long list of errors, questionable police and prosecutor actions, and coerced testimony. Unraveling these mistakes and deliberate fabrications by investigators and the prosecutor is the task of defense attorney Rosemary Scapicchio.

Sean’s original defense attorneys do a commendable job, usually not the case in wrongful convictions. It’s only many years later that it becomes apparent that the original investigators framed Sean and Terry to prevent the discovery of their corruption, which also involved detective John Mulligan.

Throughout this eight-episode docuseries, I frequently found myself wanting more information. I wanted to know more about the two guns police found in a field after Sean’s uncle told them a story that implicated Sean. I wanted to know more about Terry Patterson’s case. I wanted to learn more about the timeline. I wanted to know why Rosemary didn’t spend more time with Sean’s girlfriend and his uncle, both who testified against Sean. I wanted to see a ballistics report. I felt that there needed to be more follow-up on the plausible evidence pointing to a specific individual who may have been the actual killer.

Lastly, I wanted to see retribution. Not only was no one held accountable for the twenty-plus years Sean spent in prison, but the Boston district attorney, who dismissed charges against Sean, went out of his way to say that he believed Sean was still guilty. The same is true for the retired Bostin detectives interviewed for the series. They arrogantly dismissed any possibility that they got it wrong. “It was airtight,” one detective claimed, while the filmmakers poked holes in every aspect of the case.

The sad truth is that if not for the work of a few dedicated people, Sean Ellis would have spent the remainder of his life in prison for a crime he did not commit.

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Trump’s Wall

It started as a campaign slogan. Advisors to then-candidate Trump couldn’t get him to understand the complexities of immigration. So, they came up with the simple idea of building a wall along the southern border. Trump tried out the idea at a few speeches, and soon after the chant “build that wall” became a regular at Trump rallies.

Trump embellished the details. The wall was going to be impenetrable. “Nobody can build a wall like me,” Trump boasted. It was going to stretch the entire length of the U.S. southern border. And Mexico was going to pay for it.

When Trump couldn’t get Congress to appropriate the money for building his fanciful wall (turns out Mexico wasn’t interested in funding the project), Trump decided to steal the money from the military. To date, several hundred miles of new wall have been built with more planned. President-elect Joe Biden has promised to stop all wall construction.

That leaves open the question of what to do about the portion of new wall that has been built. Tear it down?

In some cases, part’s of Trump’s wall should be torn down, especially in areas where the wall created environmental or ecological damage, as in locations where the wall prevented animal migration.

The rest of Trump’s unfinished wall should remain as a testament to his failed presidency. What better symbol to illustrate how one man created so much divisiveness? Hundreds of years from now, when school children learn about the President who was impeached and voted out of office after just one term, they can show images of Trump’s wall. It will stand as a monument to failure for generations.