Modern-day Minstrel Show

Rating: 4/10 (6 March 2018)

I can't recall the last time I have disagreed so vigorously with critics. This isn't a great movie, or even a good movie. It's a modern-day minstrel show.
This is a movie about small-town Missouri, made by (and for) people who clearly hold mid-western America in disdain. It doesn't look like Missouri, and it was in fact shot on the east coast. More distressingly, the characters act (and talk) nothing like small-town Americans. This is a deeply classist film, made in outright contempt of the very people it depicts. It seems to speak exclusively to those with a left-leaning political bias who who enjoy having their partisan delusions validated. To put it another way, this is a movie about Trump voters, made by a Brit who doesn't even understand Brexit voters.
If this were strictly a comedy, it would simply be offensive. But this is a drama which purports to have a higher purpose than mere laughter, and worse, this is a film that feigns realism. For that reason, I consider this a blatant display of unforgivable bigotry.
If you decide to watch this film, try imagining that the black characters are white and the white characters are black. What era would produce such a condescending piece of filth? Why would that kind of portrayal be acceptable in this day and age?