Polarizing Review - Hillbilly Elegy

Among the most interesting movies and video games out there are those which utterly divide people. Godzilla: King of the Monsters, or GTA IV, or Joker – these movies are fascinating to analyse because of the cultural and societal context around these works of art. And recently, I saw a movie which perfectly fell into the divide between those who love it and those who abhor it – Hillbilly Elegy.

So Hillbilly Elegy, based on the memoir by J.D. Vance about his growing up in a working-class family and his eventual time at Harvard, came out in October with some interesting hesitation before its premiere. The book in question was controversially received for its examination of the swing of Minnesota from Democrat to Republican, for its depiction of “poverty porn”, and for ignoring elements of racism and sexism in its examination.

So some critics were expecting something which they considered morally disgusting. But others saw director Ron Howard, as well as leading stars Glenn Close and Amy Adams, and believed it to be an Oscar-ambitious drama that could be among the best of the year. So when it released, the results were…interesting.

Clearly, audiences were a lot more positive towards this movie than critics, so I’m going to try and analyze the divides between viewers, as well as provide my own personal thoughts on the movie (which if you saw my other post about the films I saw in 2020, you know those thoughts weren’t good).

So, the biggest issue for critics, as the AV club pointed out, was that it “reinforces the stereotypes it insists it’s illuminating”, depicting caricatures of poor people and oversimplifying their situation to the point of unbelievability. Meanwhile, if you read the positive audience reviews on MetaCritic, you’ll see many saying that these people are very reminiscent of those they grew up with, and that the critics were disconnected from reality.

When I watch movies, my immediate concern is not with the ultimate message or its depiction of a theme, but with the actual filmmaking, characterization and structure of the story. For instance, I walked into Parasite less expecting a social commentary and more of a gripping drama, and my interpretation of the movie’s themes came after I got over the cinematography and the amazing script.

So I didn’t think too much about Hillbilly Elegy’s depiction of anything until after I completed my thoughts on the filmmaking (which were not positive). But when I thought about it, I really agree with the critics on this one. This shows a very simplified view of poverty that doesn’t take in many other factors of poverty such as inaccessibility, racism, sexism or governmental lack of care (this lack of scale ironic for something called an elegy). This movie dumbs down its characters to simple stereotypes that are more appropriate for those viewers who watch a movie and go “Oh no, she doesn’t know that language” or “That guy’s bad!”, rather than people who want a deep and interesting story.

As for those audience members who say that these characters are accurate to real-world counterparts, that’s fine. But the movie fails to take in a wider context regardless of how these characters are depicted, blaming it entirely on them and a lack of motivation.

So that was the main issue of divide between critics and audience, the depiction of the characters in relation to real stereotypes. Another one is the actual storytelling of the movie, as critics compare it to a melodramatic soap opera, while audiences call it an inspirational story about pulling your boots up and working hard to succeed.

I honestly didn’t find the movie that inspirational or deep when I watched it. In fact, and I hate to say it considering the talent involved, Hillbilly Elegy is really dull and uninteresting. The inspirational message and emotion of the movie isn’t communicated through clever storytelling, but is stated by characters with incredibly dull exposition and scene setting. Regardless of the intent of the movie, I found it to be unengaging throughout. So again, I’m more with the critics on this one.

While this movie is divisive, one aspect which both critics and audiences agreed on is that the central performances were good. Both Glenn Close and Amy Adams have received awards nominations for their work in this film and were praised for their realistic and emotional portrayals of their characters. Additionally, the guy who played young J.D., Owen Asztalos, got some praise as well.

I certainly agree with praise for Glenn Close’s excellent performance, but I’m not a huge fan of the other two. Asztalos is fine, but he’s not very memorable, mainly due to his character’s awful writing giving him nothing interesting to do. And I found Amy Adams to be very over-the-top in this movie and unsympathetic, as the movie never really gives us a scene where she does something that has a positive impact on J.D.. So when the movie asks us to care for her, all we’ve seen is that she’s an insufferable dick.

Amazingly, the aspect of the film I found the most annoying was not really discussed by either audiences or critics, mainly due to the focuses on political aspects from analysts. My most hated element of this movie was the technical aspects and filmmaking involved.

Hillbilly Elegy is the kind of movie where at first glance, it’s passable on a technical perspective, because it doesn’t look inherently bad. But as the movie progresses, this movie’s editing became incredibly confusing, mainly because it doesn’t ever establish clear transitions between the two different timelines it’s exploring. I was frequently confused about which timeline I was in, and the film edits in some slow-motion sequences so poorly with choppy frame rate.

In terms of cinematography, this movie was shot by Maryse Alberti, who did excellent work on Creed with strong use of long takes and gliding camerawork. But Hillbilly Elegy’s cinematography feels exceptionally lazy, often refusing to move and tied in so closely to the events on screen that geography and layout of a scene feels impossible to discern. Conversation scenes are cut so rapidly and shot with odd angles, often putting the establishing shot well after it was needed, and making the whole scene feel like people are teleporting around the grass.

So that’s my take on the reception of Hillbilly Elegy. I definitely side more with the critics on this one, but there are aspects of the film which I’m surprised nobody discussed or that I didn’t agree with. Overall, I heavily dislike this movie, and Ron Howard really needs to re-invent himself and try something else.

I’m going to give Hillbilly Elegy a D.

Have you seen this movie (I doubt it)? If so, leave your thoughts in the comments.