‘Cause family is the only thing that means a goddamn...’
As I know very little about the American class system, I have no idea whether Ron Howard’s Hillbilly Elegy is a problematic depiction of poverty or not. From where I’m sitting, it’s a warm and big-hearted portrayal of a typical low-income American family with typical low-income American family problems…
J.D. Vance (Gabriel Basso as an adult and Owen Asztalos as an adolescent) comes from a troubled family. Bev (Amy Adams), his mother, is a single parent who made it through nursing school but struggles with anger issues and drug addiction. After clashing with J.D. and his sister Lindsay (Haley Bennett), Bev allows the kids to be raised by her mother known only as Mamaw (Glenn Close). As an adult, J.D. is trying to make his way through law school with the help of his supportive girlfriend Usha (Frieda Pinto).
Now, in real life, Vance has since gone on to become a prominent figure in politics, in the Republican party, no less. I have absolutely no idea what his personal politics are or how he is perceived in America, so I was able to enjoy Hillbilly Elegy on a purely cinematic level. And on that basis, there is no denying that it is a success. Howard’s assured direction is complimented by a subtle but stirring score from Hanz Zimmer and the result is a film that is compelling throughout.
Basso is an actor I knew nothing about going into this movie, but his likeable turn makes Vance impossible not to root for, and Asztalos’s heartbreaking performance as the younger incarnation of our protagonist is great also. Close stays just the right side of parody as the foul-mouthed, chain-smoking family matriarch (for which she was nominated for both an Oscar and a Razzie), but it is Amy Adams who steals the show (isn’t it always). Adams captures both the manic and the depressive side of Bev, and while her character is written as a symbol of generational abuse and childhood trauma, Adams gives the character a beating heart and a whole lot of personality in a nuanced and complex performance.
It seems that for some, it was impossible to separate Hillbilly Elegy from the politics of its subject or from the thorny issue of poverty porn. Freed from that discourse, I found this biopic to simply be an entertaining and poignant story of triumph over adversity.