2020 Reviews – Hillbilly Elegy

I think I unintentionally set myself up with the best snacks for a hillbilly movie – beef jerky and iced tea. Talk about setting a mood. I had to look up what ‘Elegy’ means though; the internet dictionary tells me it is ‘a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament of the dead.’ Hmm, sad movie coming?

Hillbilly Elegy tells the story of J.D. Vance (Gabriel Basso), when he is called home from law school because his mother, Bev (Amy Adams), is in the hospital following a drug overdose. Throughout the course of the movie, we get flashbacks to when J.D was a boy (played by Owen Asztalos), and how Bev was constantly unstable, and how J.D.’s grandmother, or Mamaw (Glenn Close), became the best person for him to rely on. This movie is directed by Ron Howard, and I actually looked up his filmography to discover I haven’t seen much of his work of late; Solo: A Star Wars Story, yes, but he kind’ve took over that directing role once it was already rolling, so I’m not sure how much of that counts. But Ron Howard is an acclaimed director, with famous films in his quiver like, A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13. This could be another classic.

Without knowing anything about this movie before going in, I saw Glenn Close and Amy Adams’ costumes on the poster, and I thought this might be one of those movies that makes fun of rednecks and looks down on them, and I didn’t want that. But this three-generational family, who live in three houses along the same suburban street are portrayed as poor, with a strong belief that family comes first; take the Kentucky accents away from them and they could be based anywhere. As a child, you see J.D. trying to befriend his mother on reasonable terms, and the challenges he faces to fulfil his responsibilities at school, with the fights, poverty and chaos around him. I love the portrayal of the class barriers that one might have to navigate to become successful, as shown early on when J.D. is trying to secure an internship, but feels out of place because he doesn’t know the wine to choose or which cutlery to use at dinner; these are little cultural obstacles that I wouldn’t think to consider, but can damage an impression when trying to look the part. The movie never explicitly details what happened to Bev in her past to make her so erratic, but I like that, because you don’t always know why someone is the way they are, and even if you did, it doesn’t mean you would have reacted the same way anyway. It makes sense, since we are watching the movie from J. D’s perspective, it helps us grasp his interpretation of the situation; he wasn’t around for Bev’s childhood, where Mamaw seems to have more empathy. Even when we get a quick flash of Bev’s past, the movie comes at it like J.D. is imagining what he is hearing, and it’s not necessarily the real event as it occurred. Against the odds, and through Mamaw’s intervention, J.D. has built a life for himself. His family drama risks imploding him on one of the most important leaps in his career – has there been more pressing stakes in a movie all year?

I never saw 2017’s The Wife, where I know Glenn Close received high praise; in fact, I reckon the most familiar I am with Glenn Close is from the live-action 101 Dalmatians movies; laugh if you want, but her Cruella de Vil is pretty solid. Although at times Mamaw reminded me of Granny from The Beverly Hillbillies, and gives the same discontented look a lot, Glenn Close is undeniably fantastic in this movie. She is just one of, well, everybody really, as I wouldn’t say this cast has a weak link. I love Owen Asztalos as the younger version of J.D.; I don’t know how many child actors could reach the emotional depths like he is expected to do. Amy Adams is so important at creating the emotionally strain on this family, quickly going from one extreme to the other. Even Haley Bennett, who might be a background character in lesser movies, is essential, and I was always watching her to gain more of her perspective on the situation, since she is handling it the best, and handling it on her own. I thought I smelled blood in the water in the first couple scenes with Gabriel Basso; since I wasn’t familiar with him and sometimes you can tell right away if someone isn’t up to it, but by the end, he is exactly what he needs to be. Freida Pinto too, the Slumdog Millionairess.

I’m staggered that this movie is getting negative reviews. A quick glance at Wikipedia tells me that people are hating on the screenplay; I thought the screenplay was very good. The scenes where Mamaw shows love with the calculator and the meals-on-wheels hit a homerun for me. I will say that the camera work and shot choices seemed scattered in parts, particularly in the first half, and I found myself having to look ‘beyond’ the movie elements to watch the story, but I wanted to, because the story was so compelling – I’m thinking of the scenes that come after Bev threatening to crash the car. I guess that’s partly editing, but I also loved the way the story was edited together; how J.D. needs to stay where he is for his job interviews, but he remembers his Mum reaching out her hand to him when he was a child and decides he needs to go back – that’s screenplay too. Even watching the evolution of this young man in the past, to the present; it’s not that much different than Little Women, honestly. I’ll concede that perhaps the subject matter isn’t the most universally appealing, and some people might be turned off by this movie’s needling and sensitivity. I thought it shifted up a gear when Mamaw became more central to the story, and if you’d already checked out by then, I suppose you weren’t going to appreciate it. I couldn’t believe this was a true story when I got to the end, but I found the characters and events of Hillbilly Elegy to be so passionate that I shouldn’t have been surprised; some things in life happen, then you write about it.

Parts of Hillbilly Elegy reminded me of strong feelings I had when I watched The Reader; a weird association, but I understood the shaky ground in which J.D. keeps finding his perception of his surroundings. Glenn Close, Amy Adams and even Owen Asztalos might look forward to spots in award season – it’s been a year short on new movies, so anything is possible. I thought Hillbilly Elegy was something special; a story with a constant rawness you don’t see very often. I’m giving it 4.5, and I’ve given out so many 4.5 ratings this year, I just know I’m going to have fun when it comes to ranking my top ten, and seeing how they all fit together at the end of the year. It’s such a good problem to have because it means that it’s been another highly enjoyable time to be a movie fan.

4.5