I never thought, in 2020, I’d see controversy stemming from a film being apolitical, but here we are. Critics have met Hillbilly Elegy with mostly abject disdain, resulting in a 39 aggregate score from MetaCritic and a 26% Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score. However, the 81% audience score from RT is a wide gap. Pinning it “Oscar bait” isn’t necessarily inaccurate but that distinction shouldn’t disqualify it as a good movie either.
This was unquestionably a performance-driven film with big, colorful roles for Amy Adams and Glenn Close who are both incredible and that’s where the “Oscar bait” tag comes from. It’s often strange to watch characters you aren’t cheering for or have a hard time finding sympathy for, but that is the point here. The story is told from the perspective of the son who worked his way out of poverty and a family legacy of addiction and abuse, to graduate from Yale law school. His personal politics are echoed somewhat throughout the film, as he often blames his mother and grandma for their poor life choices and laziness. That’s another place where the film’s taken criticism, but I also saw a young man whose perceptions about his family’s and his community’s history weren’t fully informed.
The film’s focus is much more on their behaviors at present than the circumstances that got them there, but it’s not as though some context is completely absent. While it’s not the focal point, director Ron Howard has the specter of the dilapidated local steel mill looming in the background. It’s not explicit, which also took criticism, but the factory closing in the small town had long-lasting ripple effects that led to much of the circumstantial poverty and addiction issues that plague the Vance family and many others. Criticism of the roles as caricatures of Appalachian hill people might be warranted, but it’s based on the memoir of J.D. Vance who didn’t seem to have any issues with the depiction of his family. By most accounts, Vanessa Taylor’s screenplay adaptation is more sympathetic than the book.
While Adams and Close have been getting much of the attention for the flamboyant nature of their characters, Gabriel Basso and Owen Asztalos were both quite good as J.D. at different ages. Haley Bennett also continues to give strong performances, this time as J.D.’s sister Lindsay. Others have sad the almost cartoonish nature of Bev (Adams) and Mamaw (Close) dragged everyone else down, I feel the opposite. Those high-volume portrayals helped pave the road for Basso, Asztalos, and Bennett to deliver more tangible, measured performances.
I don’t know if it’s still true that “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” but controversy almost always tends to pique public interest. Even with all the negativity, this movie has climbed 87-spots up to #2 on IMDB’s popularity meter. It’s also got a surprisingly strong soundtrack.
Recommendation: Don’t let the negative press turn you off. See it for the performances and take the context as you will.