Grade: B
All I knew going into Hillbilly Elegy (a Netflix Original, nominated for two Oscars) was that it is based on a book. After seeing the film, I assumed that book was fiction. But no, it is based on a memoir, and therefore, a true story. Now my question is: how much of that actually happened? There had to have been some embellishments. Hillbilly Elegy is a cinema movie, through and through, make no mistake – complete with voiceover narration, a score that seems to want to dominate as much as it can, and cookie-cutter fish-out-of-water culture shock jokes. (Isn’t that cute? This 21-something-year-old at a nice dinner doesn’t know which fork to use for what course, so he calls his girlfriend in a panic.) There is a hospitalized character who makes an impulsive decision to unofficially discharge themself. This person removes all their tubes and IVs, and manages to walk out, completely undetected by any staff, and drive home. And from that point, their pneumonia is forgotten about, for the convenience of the plot. There is a priceless moment where our lead character’s sister tells him he doesn’t know the whole situation, and that “it’s not all mom’s fault. She and Aunt Laurie had it very rough.” Cut to a flashback from the mother’s turbulent childhood, and then back to the present day, where our hero nods in understanding, because he has this new information. Did some dialogue happen in the interim that we weren’t privy to, or did the sister telepathically send him a flashback to get him up to speed?
Despite some bothersome quibbles, I admired much about the movie. The actors commit to their roles with sincerity. Amy Adams plays Bev, a single mother of two who goes through so many men that when she tells her mother and children that she just got married, they’re not even sure who with. She was a nurse at the local hospital, until she got let go for stealing and becoming addicted to pain pills. Best Supporting Actress nominee Glenn Close is an irreverent, scene-stealing hoot as the mother/grandmother. The book this is based on was written by the son in the story, J.D. Vance – played by Gabriel Basso in the present-day sequences, and uncannily convincing us it could be the same person is Owen Asztalos as Young JD. Haley Bennett as the sister is a great discovery for me, and somebody I want to keep my eye on. Frieda Pinto is effective as JD’s girlfriend, one of the most devoted and understanding significant others you’ll see in a movie. The film bounces back and forth between 1997 and 2011.
I was thrilled to see so many of my friends in this movie. Atlanta actors have, for the last few years at least, been the solid foundation that supports these big-time stars. I have distributed Altoids to several of these people. Nice to see Nathan Hesse, Tess Malis Kincaid, Lowrey Brown, and others.
Director Ron Howard has done the best he possibly could with Hillbilly Elegy, for all its pretentious and predictable elements. I am sure the main idea of the story really happened, and it is an uplifting and amazing one. I recommend the movie, if you can handle a little sugar in your teeth.
Grade: B
Film Reviews by Mark 
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