Hillbilly Elegy (2020)

Based on the memoirs of J D Vance; a Yale Law student who is torn between his future life and his own past. When he's called him, he reflects on his past and the tough decisions he will have to make.

Related titles: Winter's Bone, Hell or High Water, Mudbound 

Rating: 6/10
By Leanne 

I enjoyed this film but can't quite shake the feeling that it's such an awards film. Everything about it screams  that it's a grab for awards. The performances are strong from the leading cast but I've definitely seen better deserving performances from the leading ladies. This film is  everything that the awards viewers seem to go for. 

So the basic premise of this film is something we've seen before time and time again. Our main man J D Vance is torn between the alluring new life he's got and the call of home and how important his family roots and upbringing are to him. It's not original or fresh but what is great about this particular film is that it's based on the memoirs of J D himself. This makes the situations all the more poignant and hard hitting if you ask me. It can be easy to disconnect when something is completely fictional but this wasn't the case for Hillbilly Elegy. The film begins with a quick start introduction to J D and his family. A little local knowledge and a little bit of family history. It then jumps to his current life where he is battling to become a lawyer in the cutthroat university Yale - a life that is a million miles away from his childhood. It then all begins when his is called home as his mum is struggling to deal with drug addiction. From there, we are taken on a whirlwind journey with J D as he relives childhood memories and visits his past. 

From the beginning of this film, I really liked the use of the (what I assume to be) drone footage used of the town and the winding road. It seems like a visual representation of the what was to come in film. I also really like the contrasting visuals used as the family's home town was introduced. While talking about his grandparents leaving their home and starting afresh in a new that two generations on he stills calls home, we see some fantastic visuals. As they arrive, in the memory, the town is ablaze with young, fresh faces and a big factory full of new opportunities. This is then cut away to J D returning home to the same town that is now so different. It's quiet, empty and the factory is closed. The scene is short and uses narration to fill the audience in. I loved the colour contrast too. Originally, the new town was full of colour, light and has a shimmer of hope for their fresh start but as J D drives in it seems much more bleak with darker colours taking over the screen. This whole scene is relatively short but is a fantastic way of presenting the changes past and present. There is also a fantastic transition of the young grandmother and grandfather driving into the town which ever so smoothly turns into the present day much older pair.

Adult J D is introduced as being very out of his depth during a dinner party. It's a very endearing scene and made me instantly root for him and his success. During this dinner party, he shows his fiery side when a firm partner begins talking about his home life and refers to his family as 'hillbillies' just based on the limited knowledge he has of them. I liked the way it instantly showed J D's protective nature over his family and roots which is explained further throughout the film.

The score in this film is something to take note of. Hans Zimmer has deployed it fantastically. It's often used subtlety in the background of scenes to create a certain mood. There are also times where it swells and fills a scene. It's an excellent accompaniment to the film and I think it definitely has an impact on the viewer. I've also got to shout out the use of Banarama's tune Cruel Summer included over a particularly funny scene in the hospital. Just adding a final touch to the already brilliant scene. 

The cast in this film are fantastic and it's worth sticking around till the end credits to see the similarities between their real life counterparts. They've done a fantastic job on making the cast up to look like them - especially Glenn Close! Leading man J D is portrayed by Gabriel Basso who I felt brought J D's internal struggle to the screen well. His younger self is portrayed by Owen Asztalos who I also thought was fantastic especially when considering the nature of most of his scenes. Haley Bennett plays sister Lindsay and their relationship seems to come across really well through the two actors. Glenn Close plays their mawmaw (or grandma) and brings this character to life despite some of her scenes feeling a little two dimensional. While her performance was very good, I can't help but feel her performance in The Wife (2017) was better and she was snubbed an Oscar award if you ask me! Amy Adams plays their mother Bev who struggles with drug addiction and a hot temper. The way her character switches from the calm and loving mother to a raging woman in a heartbeat was at times scary! She plays the role excellently and there are some genuinely touching scenes between her and her children as well as some genuinely scary moments when you remember this is all based on real events.

There are a lot of heavy concepts dealt with in this film including drug addiction and physical and emotional abuse. There's no real respite from this either as the flashbacks are pretty consistent. There are plenty of scenes where you will feel very sorry for characters and how much effort they are putting in and how little they get back. I think some of the flashbacks and constant cuts made the film a little chunky at times and the memories or connections back to the past didn't always flow together well. This could be because of the difficulty in adapting memoirs which don't necessarily follow a linear story - but I can't comment on this one as I haven't read it! This film did make me want to read the memoirs and compare the two because there are certainly a few scenes which are intense and emotional. 

Overall, I did enjoy this film as there's nothing really to dislike about it; I just wish it wasn't such an obvious pitch for awards success. 

Rating: 7/10
By Rebecca

Hillbilly Elegy is an interesting film for sure, we follow Yale Law Student JD Vance from childhood to being at Yale about to interview for a summer internship. The premise of the film is that JD navigated a rough and challenging childhood due to family dynamic and mostly because of his mothers drug addiction. The screenplay was based off of JD's actual memoir which was released in 2006. In the movie, we see the action cutting back and forth from flashbacks of JD's youth, to present day, where JD is at university. JD grew up in Middletown, Ohio - a lively affluent area for workers back when his Mamaw and Papaw (grandmother & grandfather) moved from Kentucky. However when JD was a teenager, the area was a shadow of its former self, run down, factories closed, and feeling a bit sorry for itself. With no father in the picture, JD's mother, Bev, was looking after both him and his sister Lindsay, but it soon came clear that Bev was struggling with substance abuse and subsequently was mentally and emotionally unstable. Mamaw would often step in and look after JD, and she was one kind of stability in his life. There was a constant battle between JD and Bev, particularly emotionally, JD was only a kid but stuck up for himself and wasn't afraid to confront his mum about her abuse. Fastforward to present day, and Lindsay calls to tell JD that Bev has overdosed on heroin. JD again has another inner self battle, of whether to drive 10 hours to help out his mum once again. He decides to go, without an explanation to his girlfriend Usha, and with important interviews coming up.

When I think of this movie, I'll ultimately think of the performances from Amy Adams and Glenn Close. Amy Adams plays Bev, and the contrast in her appearance alone between flashbacks and flashforwards is crazy. In the flashbacks, Bev, although a junkie, held it together, kind of. She looked presentable and pretty and always dressed well. But when JD comes back, she is dishevelled and messy, looking like someone who is on drugs. The way Amy Adams could switch her tone and behaviour was brilliant. She was able to capture how on a knifes edge Bev's personality was. I'm sure she will get some nominations this year. Also we have to mention Glenn Close as Mamaw. When the end credits roll, you see actual pictures of the real Mamaw and they are so similar its uncanny. As a character, I did enjoy Mamaw, she was a tough love figure in JD's life and arguably the reason why he was able to get out of Middletown to make a better life for himself. She had a tough time as well, and unfortunately sometimes it runs down in families. Mamaw admits that she could have done better with Bev but I feel like she took JD under her wing to make amends. 

I have to compare Hillbilly Elegy to 'Beautiful Boy', where Timothee Chalamet plays a teenager addicted to drugs. In that film it focuses on the addicts life and how drugs ruin their life. However in Hillbilly Elegy is it mainly focused on how it is impacting the lives of people around them. How JD and Lindsay don't have a parent figure to look after them, which means JD is quick to mix with the wrong people, fail at his school work and be ok with falling down the same hole as his mother. Ultimately drug addiction impacts everything and everyone around you. 

I did enjoy this film, but could see why it isn't for everyone. It's a very heavy topic and has a lot of emotionally driven scenes which can be uncomfortable. However you do see the light at the end of the tunnel, giving you hope to break out of a bad situation.