When JD Vance's memoir 'Hillbilly Elegy' soared to the top of the New York Times' bestseller list in 2016, the year of Donald Trump's election, it sparked a fevered debate.
To some, it was a fascinating and provocative exploration of the community that embraced Trump.
To others, it whitewashed racist undercurrents among that white working class.
Vance, a Republican, was very alive to the racial sensitivities around his book and its focus on the opioid crisis in working class white homes.
Aware that his book was being praised for shining a light on the Scotch Irish working class voters who drawn to Trump after eight years under Barack Obama's Presidency, he told the Guardian newspaper: "Obama strikes at the heart of our deepest insecurities."
"I think that Obama is everything that the American meritocracy values at a time when a lot of us feel like the American meritocracy doesn't value very much about us at all.
"It is just sort of like everything about him. He's like the American ideal at the very moment that we feel like we're the opposite of the American ideal."
Just weeks after an incredibly tight US Presidential Election that has seen Trump lose to Obama's Vice President Joe Biden, Oscar winning director Ron Howard has turned 'Hillbilly Elegy'' into a tentpole movie for Netflix in the build-up to an awards season that will stretch to next April.
The response, however, has been even more fiercely divided than it was when the book was published.
And that probably speaks volumes about the impact of the Trump Presidency.
Some critics have dismissed Howard's version of the book as "poverty porn".
Others have accused it of stereotyping, of being obvious Oscars bait, of being a pretty shameless attempt to assuage liberal guilt and of promoting a "sickeningly irresponsible parade of death and despair".
A minority of critics have been kinder, acknowledging the stirring family drama at its heart.
Howard's film, adapted from Vance's book by Vanessa Taylor, flits between two timelines in the author's life.
It begins in childhood, with Owen Asztolos' young JD savouring the summers spent in his family's original Appalachian homestead in the hills and forests of Jackson, Kentucky.
The Vances flood Jackson every summer, with JD enjoying cycling to the local river for a swim.
Even when he is bullied by local teenagers, the community doesn't lose its lustre - especially when his family exact retribution on those responsible.
However the Vances' hometown for most of the year is Middletown, Ohio - although JD observes that it never really feels like their home.
Packing up to go back to Middletown, JD asks his grandmother, Glenn Close's Mamaw why they have to return, only for his mother, Amy Adams' Bev to interject that that's just what happens when you are 13 and pregnant.
Mamaw shoots Bev an angry look, unhappy that her past is casually dredged up by her daughter.
Bev is intelligent but seriously screwed up - a struggling single mom with a fierce temper, a well of bitterness, a taste for impetuousness, a string of dysfunctional relationships and a propensity for addiction.
JD's relationship with her is see saw but, then again, so is Mamaw's and her daughter, Haley Bennett's Lindsay.
In the other timeline, Howard and Taylor tell the story of JD's attempts to reach his full potential as an adult.
Gabriel Basso's adult JD has graduated from Ohio State University after serving as a soldier in Iraq and has made it to Yale, hoping to land a plum internship with a law firm.
His girlfriend, Freida Pinto's Usha is sweet and supportive.
JD's white, working class Appalachian roots, however, make him feel intimidated in the establishment circles he is trying to court.
A dinner in which he is trying to catch the eye of managing partners in the top legal firms only triggers his insecurities and highlights his lack of experience of mixing in such social circles.
JD frets about which wine to choose or which spoon and knife to use during the various courses and he even rings Usha for advice.
A careless comment over dinner by one law firm executive about JD's roots being redneck hits a raw nerve and results in him flying off the handle.
That outburst also comes on the back of a phone call from Lindsay that Bev has fallen off the wagon and overdosed on heroin.
Despite having a possible interview for an internship the following day, JD drives to Middletown at Lindsay's request to help her sort out their mum.
It is inevitably a struggle, as JD tries to secure her a place in rehab much to her displeasure.
Inevitably, JD has to choose between a chance to advance his station and a mum whose insecurity and addiction is threatening to drag him and everyone around her down.
All of this family dysfunction and addiction seems like standard Hollywood awards contender fare.
However Howard, Taylor and the cast give the formula an Appalachian flavour.
As dysfunctional family memoir movies go, 'Hillbilly Elegy' is well made and very well acted.
The often reliable Amy Adams grabs the opportunity to rant and rage with gusto as Bev battles several demons.
It is a searing, eye catching performance.
The two JDs - Gabriel Basso and Owen Asztolos - are heartfelt in their depiction of the hero.
Bennett and Pinto also impress - the former as a weary sister and daughter trying to forgive an errant mum and do her best, the latter as a warm girlfriend eager to do all she can.
But the performance of the movie is undoubtedly Glenn Close's, even if Adams runs her a close second.
Undergoing a physical transformation to uncannily resemble Vance's real Mamaw, it is a performance of spirit and precision as an old woman for whom family is everything.
Close's performance screams Oscar nomination and don't be surprised if it eventually lands her the statuette that has evaded her for all her career in the Best Supporting Actress category.
Adams, Basso, Asztolos and Close get plenty of big speeches and scenery to chew - something that some critics have balked at.
While 'Hillbilly Elegy' is a very conveniional telling of a story about a family and community that has lost its way, whether you are sold on its depiction of Scotch Irish working class probably says an awful lot about your politics right now.
Some critics have reacted as if Howard and Taylor should never have dared wade into this territory, as if the story is somehow unworthy of treatment.
It's hard not to feel that in the four years since Vance's memoir became a publishing sensation the US has become so politically polarised that tolerance for the community it depicts is in even shorter supply in some quarters.
In this critic's opinion, the subject is valid.
In fact, 'Hillbilly Elegy' is much better than some hysterical reviews would have you believe.
While it isn't perfect, it is certainly a much, much better movie than 'Cats' - the last film to trigger the sort of consensus that led to critics competing with each other to deliver the most over-the-top review.
'Hillbilly Elegy,' I would argue, is in the upper end of Howard's body of work.
I would certainly take it any day over 'Far and Away' or 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' or 'The Da Vinci Code' and place it not too far behind 'Apollo 13,''Frost/Nixon' or 'A Beautiful Mind'.
Those decrying its depiction of the Appalachian community as stereotyping and accusing it of poverty porn were noticeably more muted when Antonio Campos' 'The Devil All The Time: hit our screens on Netflix, with its depiction of God fearing, sexually repressed, occasionally psychotic Hillybilly folk.
And where was the same hysterical foaming at the mouth over the Oscar bait of 'The Trial of the Chicago Seven'?
To counter some of the nonsense, it is instructive to read Tracy Moore's take in Vanity Fair on Howard's movie as someone who hails from Vance's community and clearly identifies with aspects of the movie.
And that's the point.
If Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are to succeed in their goal of uniting the US again after a bitter, divisive election, they will need to address the expectations of those who felt marginalised under Donald Trump's combative reign - particularly those African American communities blighted by institutional racism in the police.
But the other side of the equation requires them and their supporters to understand the reasons why many people were prepared to vote for Trump instead of the Democratic Party's ticket and to be prepared to address some of their needs as well.
Without tackling the politics of the white working class directly, 'Hillbilly Elegy' tries to understand the challenges faced by some in that community.
The film addresses only a small section of the Trump base but those stories need to be heard too.
It is only by listening to the white working class and understanding their grievances that America can start to heal by identifying common ground and challenging misconceptions on both sides.
'Hillbilly Elegy' is a start.
But is anyone really listening?
('Hillbilly Elegy' had a limited theatrical release in the United States on November 11, 2020 before being made available for streaming on Netflix on November 24, 2020)
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