ReviewNetflix movie review: Hillbilly Elegy – Amy Adams, Glenn Close vie for Oscars in inspirational tale of frustrated white working-class
- J.D. Vance’s bestselling memoir gets the full Hollywood treatment in director Ron Howard’s inspirational tale of addiction, survival, success and sorrow
- Adams and Close put in great performances, with Close’s stunning turn as the family matriarch putting her in line for an overdue Academy Award
3.5/5 stars
When the trailer for Ron Howard’s Hillbilly Elegy went online recently, the consensus was that the director’s new film was made to be awards bait. It’s a harsh assessment of what is a highly watchable take on J.D. Vance’s bestselling memoir chronicling his difficult upbringing in Appalachia and his journey to studying at Yale Law School.
Vance’s book became a talking point during the 2016 US election, with many believing its portrayal of disaffected white working-class pinpointed why Donald Trump swept to power. Howard – working with Vanessa Taylor, who previously scripted Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water – prunes back on Vance’s socio-economic theorising to craft an intimate family drama.
For a director who has leaned into blockbuster territory these past few years, Hillbilly Elegy is a return to the more character-driven terrain Howard pursued successfully in the past, with films like Cinderella Man and Parenthood. Flip-flopping between Vance’s troubled childhood in Ohio and his time at Yale, Howard concentrates on his subject’s tumultuous relationship with his mother, Bev.
Played by Amy Adams, who is surely completing some sort of addiction trilogy after TV drama Sharp Objects and The Woman in the Window, Bev is a loose cannon, whether it’s one-night stands or, more disturbingly, heroin use. In the flashbacks, Vance is played by Owen Asztalos; weaving around these scenes is the older Vance (The Kings of Summer’s Gabriel Basso), travelling back from Yale to his hometown on a mercy dash.