OSCARS 2021: Hillbilly Elegy (2020)

Every Oscar season brings with it a “villain movie.” This is a movie that, despite being politically gross or made by shitty people or just obnoxious, attracts attention from the Academy. In past years, this was due to films like “Joker” or “Bohemian Rhapsody” being huge box office successes and gaining just enough positive reviews to be legitimized in the eyes of AMPAS. This year, the villain movie is “Hillbilly Elegy.” The Netflix original was clearly designed to be the boldest of Oscar bait. The film was met with scorn from most corners of the critical world and it's author was quickly revealed to be a piece of shit. Despite that, the Academy's overwhelming love of Glenn Close and a lack of decent competition in the Make-Up category led the movie to two nominations. Which means I have to review it. Thus is my lot of life. 

J.D. Vance grew up in the Appalachian region of Kentucky and Ohio. His mother, Beverly, had an explosive personality, frequently getting into screaming match with her son and daughter, Lindsey. His grandmother had a similarly large disposition, though she often defends J.D. when Beverly becomes too much to live with. Despite numerous disruptions at home, J.D. would grow up to be a Yale law grad with a beautiful finance. As he's about to have a promising job interview, he gets a phone call: His mom has overdosed on heroin. He returns to Kentucky to take care of his mom, reflecting on memories and dealing with the chaos at home. 

Speaking as a resident of Appalachia, albeit on the West Virginian side, some of the sights seen in “Hillbilly Elegy” are not alien to me. While living in Ohio, J.D and his family see people arguing on their front porches. Everyone is constantly puffing on cigarettes, even Meemaw after she has a heart attack. There's lots of screen doors, overalls, and folding card tables. (And just to make sure we know it's partially set in the nineties, “Hillbilly Elegy” drops a few obvious needle drops like Eagle-Eye Cherry and Local H.) In other words, it's southern, rural poverty. Drug use is common, from inhalants to Beverly's abuse of pills and heroin. Despite the poverty he grew up in, J.D is clearly fond of his old Kentucky home. Not to mention the film depicts his mother figures as being full of wisdom, despite their trashy attitudes and appearances. 

In other words, “Hillbilly Elegy” is the kind of movie that romanticizes poverty. Moreover, it's the kind of poverty porn that shows it as a state that can be escaped. The script constantly references Beverly being the smartest girl in her high school class, without actually showing us much evidence of that. In his darkest moment, J.D. smashes some toilets inside a business and wrecks a car. This is the wake-up call he needs to... Start doing well in public school and working a minimum wage job at a grocery store? “Hillbilly Elegy” tries to forge the myth that poverty is something you can easily escape with this nebulous thing called “hard work.” It presents poverty as a failure of morality – via Beverly's drug abuse and personal problems – and not a societal condition that people are born into. It's bullshit.

This is, somehow, not the most offensive message contained within “Hillbilly Elegy.” Beverly is, to put it simply, abusive to her children. She screams at J.D. for a simple mistake, like knocking over some Easter eggs. After an innocuous comment, Beverly almost wrecks a car, smacks her son around, and chases him into a stranger's home while in a frenzy. His grandmother, despite being presented as some sort of folksy hero, is also borderline abusive. Her brand of “tough love” includes threats of violence and abandonment. Despite his family treating him like shit, J.D. is constantly told that family is too important to leave behind. That he owes these terrible people something, simply because of blood relation. Having seen people, friends and loved ones, torn part because they can't walk away from their terrible families, I can't tell you how much this pissed me off. What a garbage message to send out as “inspiring” or whatever.

To go along with its shitty themes, “Hillbilly Elegy” is front-loaded with grotesquely overacted performances. Beverly is clearly written as a woman with a mental illness, with she self-medicates with drugs. Amy Addams does not attempt to bring any humanity to this role. She plays Beverly as nothing but a shrieking, hateful person full of scorn. When the inevitable, tear-strewn confrontation over her drug use arrives, it's done in as over-the-top fashion as possible. Glenn Close, as Meemaw, is only a notch or two less ridiculous. She croaks out hideous dialogue about good and bad Terminators, Close mugging excessively. Han Zimmer's score matches the oversized emotions of these performances. 

The film also has an almost hilarious abrupt ending, after rambling on for nearly two hours. Do I have anything nice to say about “Hillbilly Elegy?” The make-up team maybe did deserve a Oscar nomination, as Close and Addams do convincingly look more like people living out in the sticks than movie stars. Owen Asztalos gives a solid enough performance as young JD. Maryse Alberti's cinematography is sometimes nice and the Kentucky countryside, when the movie focuses on it, is lovely. I haven't mentioned that Ron Howard directed this yet, because he brings absolutely nothing distinct to the film. That “Hillbilly Elegy” managed to score any nominations at all is a testament to how powerful Netflix has become, as this film is a ghoulish exercise that does little beside irritate and anger. [4/10]