Hillbilly Elegy

Hillbilly Elegy is a beautifully constructed, unforgiving, heart-tugging family epic about three generations of the Vance family.

Glenn Close and Amy Adams shine in Ron Howard's new, rather unfocused film about abuse, poverty, and addiction.

As long as Close is acting up an award-worthy storm (her performance is actually quite meticulous), Hillbilly Elegy is never less than alive. Adams does some showpiece acting of her own, but as skillful as her performance is, she never gets us to look at Bev with pity and terror.

Like most of Howard’s films, Hillbilly Elegy is perfectly watchable, unchallenging and largely forgettable awards fodder.

Make no mistake: Ron Howard’s Hillbilly Elegy is a bad film, inert and clichéd and largely devoid of cinematic imagination. But it is not a problematic film.

Hillbilly Elegy is both witless cosplay and a failure to interrogate any of the book’s controversial insinuations. I can’t imagine the film will satisfy those who agree with Vance or those who want to tangle with him—let alone those just looking for an engrossing family saga.

Hillbilly Elegy is two movies, one laughably bad and one boringly bad.

I've watchedthis twice. I willbe watchingit ****'sbeen a couple yrs. I remember the Ron Howard Legend interview about the movie. Glenn Closeabd Any Adamsare **** readyto cry if you can relateto this story line it will hit home for you. The struggles JD goes throughwith his moms addiction is heartbreaking. Truly inspiring story. Showing you can achieve anything you put all your heart into . Don't takemy word for it or the ridiculous criticism from people that can't relate to growing up poor with a drug addict mother.

Movie was very disappointing. They took only a thin slice out of an excellent book.

Sentimental drama relies just that bit too much on the tricks of the trade (for horrors that a jump scare, for drama its a teary eyed character displaying a big emotional moment and music playing sweetly! So much of that here!!!). Casting and production quality is excellent. Howard and his team do the best they can to cram in 4 successively shown time lines inside the tight 1hr 52 mins playtime but honestly I feel this would've hit more of its dramatic beats authentically without afformentioned tricks if it had been split into a 3 episode mini series instead. Ultimately then this comes across as a shallow attempt to squeeze out the audience's emotions rather than 'earn them' through the grit of what the characters endure. An interesting watch for sure!

Man, Amy Adams and Glenn Close really want that Oscar that they will star in something like 'Hillbilly Elegy'. A shallow, predicable, and the most obvious "Oscar bait" movie ever made. However, it's not the worst thing ever despite what some people have said. Nothing captures the human struggle of lower-class people than rich celebrities, who think they have a gasp on reality, but after filming has finished, they go back to their rich lives until the next million-dollar role comes to them. If you're going to make a movie around this type of topic, you better get it right.

Amy Adams and Glen Close star in director Ron Howard's adaptation of J.D. Vance's 2016 memoir. Netflix released to the theatre's for a couple of weeks before moving to their platform this week. Glad I waited. "Hillbilly Elegy" explores J.D. Vance's relationship with his troubled mother (Adams) and her ongoing addiction to heroin and the care of his supportive grandmother (Close). Close is very good in this film (and could be remembered during awards season), but Adams felt "off" in her role. I just didn't feel any empathy for her downward (and overacted) spiral. J.D. (Gabriel Basso) also flatlined here. In a film that's supposed to challenge us on provocative social issues such as welfare, social rot, and the "hillbilly culture", Howard (who I normally love) was probably the wrong director to explore this world. Messages are largely lost and the film is simply a series of vignette's whereby J.D. (now finishing Yale Law School) remembers his troubled childhood. Netflix has a miss here.