Hillbilly Elegy is Actually Good, Despite its Reviews

A Review (and Review Revue): What the Critics Missed About Culture Clash

The film Hillbilly Elegy follows the story of Yale Law student J.D. Vance, who is called away from his shiny, high-society trajectory back to his Appalachian home to deal with an acute family medical crisis. As he visits, we learn via flashback about Vance’s family’s troubled past, and just what sort of odds Vance overcame to make it to Yale. The film, directed by Ron Howard, is based on a memoir of the same name by, you guessed it, J.D. Vance.

Thematically, Hillbilly Elegy is a combination of Good Will Hunting and The Florida Project. Though all three films are fictional, Hillbilly Elegy has the benefit of being inspired by true events and real people. Moreover, the film is an intense window into three broader issues: intergenerational trauma, the opioid crisis, and an Appalachian-roots meets Yale-law-school culture clash.

Taking these three themes in order, the most notable aspect of the film is that its fierce portrayal of intra-familial trauma makes for an incredibly moving and emotionally rocking watch. For this, the cast and crew should be given a great deal of credit. Amy Adams, who plays Vance’s mother Beverly, offers up a particularly stellar performance, capturing a personality ranging from drug fiend to loving mother with the kind of rage issues that can stem from being raised by at least one alcoholic parent.

In addition, the film does a great job of showing — not telling — the awful effects of the opioid crisis and how this crisis compounded the effects of the changing economy. For instance, the residents of Middletown, Ohio know more about rehab centers than anyone should, because they all know people who have gone to them. The film’s writer, Vanessa Taylor, bets that the Sackler family and Perdue Pharma’s role in the opioid crisis is common knowledge, and one would be hard-pressed to think that this bet failed. (Speaking of which, not only should whatever fine the Sacklers et al. are being made to pay be multiplied by an order of magnitude or more, they should also be made to watch this film several times. Not so many times so that they get inured to it, mind you, but enough so they have to viscerally confront what they have helped wrought.)

Given the film’s premise, some fish-out-of-water moments are inevitable, particularly as J.D. (played by Gabriel Basso)…