Hillbilly Elegy

Starring: Amy Adams, Glenn Close, Gabriel Basso, Haley Bennett, Freida Pinto, Owen Asztalos, Bo Hopkins

Director: Ron Howard

Based on the book "Hillbilly Elegy" by J.D. Vance.

While attending Yale Law School and working three jobs to make tuition, J.D. (Gabriel Basso) has a shot at getting well paying job with a prestigious D.C law firm that would help him stay close with his girlfriend Usha (Freida Pinto). The day before his big interview, he gets a call from his sister Lindsey (Haley Bennett) back in Ohio that their mother Bev (Amy Adams) has relapsed and is in the hospital. Risking missing his interview, he returns home to Appalachia where he must confront his tumultuous and sometimes abusive past with his mother and reflect on how his Mamaw (Glenn Close) was the one who raised him.

Given the state of the film industry, Netflix has a real shot at making a huge impact at the Oscars this year. The Trial of the Chicago 7 has already been released but coming in the next few months are David Fincher's Mank as well as Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, The Midnight Sky, Pieces of a Woman and Malcolm & Marie. Hoping to join the party is Ron Howard's Hillbilly Elegy but unfortunately they have no seat at the table. They probably won't even get their name on the guest list.

Ron Howard is no stranger to biopics (Rush, Cinderella Man, A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13) and while that resume is impressive on paper, you can't help but be disappointed by Hillbilly Elegy. The film looks great, boasting impressive cinematography from Maryse Alberti, but lacks something those other films have: likable characters. Audiences can get through some tough and challenging material if they have someone they can root for.

The closest this movie gets is either Freida Pinto's criminally underused Usha or Glenn Close's Mamaw (who honestly should get at least an Oscar nomination for her fierce performance). They bring a small glimmer of humanity to a movie that doesn't seem to have any. I don't mind movies with flawed characters but J.D. and Bev were very frustrating to watch. That's not a knock on either Amy Adams or Gabriel Basso and Owen Asztalos who play J.D. as an adult and child respectively. It's hard to tell where the blame ultimately lies: the source material, the script (written by Vanessa Taylor, who was recently nominated for an Oscar for co writing The Shape of Water), or Ron Howard's direction.

Without any real characters to root for, the movie becomes a slog to get through because it's also darn depressing. Watching a story about an abusive parent is tough enough to sit through without drug abuse and characters just arguing with each other for the majority of the two hour run time. There was one part where I thought the movie was starting to wrap up and checked the time and there was still an hour left. It's a pretty miserable experience that tries to wrap up on a hopeful note in its last 5 minutes. It's a very trite and unconvincing ending.

Considering the talent involved and having awards backing by Netflix, I expected better.

Grade: D

Hillbilly Elegy is available to stream on Netflix.