169. Hillbilly Elegy; movie review

 

 

HILLBILLY ELEGY

Cert 15

116 mins

BBFC advice: Contains suicide references, language, drug misuse, violence

This is now becoming a trend - films which include great performances but don't achieve big marks in the overall analysis.

Glenn Close and Amy Adams are superb as mother and daughter as part of a struggling Ohio family in Ron Howard's Hillbilly Elegy.

Adams' character slides into drug addiction and leans on her son, JD (Owen Asztalos), to pull her out of the mire consistently from an early age. 

Now the boy had grown into a man (Gabriel Basso) but he faces a familiar problem when he learns his mum has overdosed on heroin... just as he is setting up interviews for a vital internship.

Howard's movie is an adaptation of JD Vance's autobiography and is told in the present day, flashing back to his childhood.

It reflects on difficult times as a youngster when he was pushed from pillar to post and got into trouble along the way.

The latter was inevitable because of the poor example set by all of the foul-mouthed irresponsible adults around him.

Frighteningly, this was much more typically American than much of the picket-fence gloss with which we are often presented.

These are the disenfranchised people who turned to Trump when he offered them the lowest common denominator.

Vance, with the encouragement of his wizened grandmother (Close) tried to break out of the cycle but finds himself dragged back in by the needs of his ungrateful mother.

Unfortunately, I suspect that this story is played out far too many times across America where the establishment seems to have given up on the impoverished and, in turn, they contribute little to society.

Indeed, their moral compass, as in the case of Vance's mother, appears to be completely askew.

I was left wondering what she made of the film and being portrayed as so self-centred and wasted. It must have been a considerable risk by her son who is one of the film's executive producers.

Her part is expertly played by Adams and her mother is given even more gusto by the unrecognisable Close but I struggled to feel the love for Hillbilly Elegy.

It may have reflected real-life with a keen eye but it doesn't give us any clue as to what has caused the defeatism of a whole strand of society.

Reasons to watch: A different side to America

Reasons to avoid: Remorselessly downbeat

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 7.5/10

Did you know? When Hillbilly Elegy debuted in the summer of 2016, no one expected it to be such a massive success. HarperCollins, the book’s publisher, ran an initial 10,000 copies hit number one on the New York Times hardcover non-fiction bestseller list at the end of August. Since its publication, it has appeared on that list 74 times and, according to HarperCollins, has sold three million copies. 

The final word. Amy Adams: "I think the themes of this movie are very universal. Whether it be generational trauma, whether it be just examining where we come from to understand where we’re going and who we are. I think the universality of the themes of the movie far transcends politics.” Indie Wire

 

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