“Hillbilly Elegy” (M) *** and a half

THE population of the US is about 330 million. The national anthem of the US ends with the couplet “the land of the free and the home of the brave”. It’s the largest English-speaking nation on the planet. 

In the State of Ohio, the median household income in 2018 was $US56,111. Ohio is where Yale Law School graduate JD Vance spent his childhood. Now in his 36th year, with a wife and one son, JD wrote “Hillbilly Elegy”, describing the Appalachian values of his upbringing and their relation to the social problems of his hometown. The book topped America’s best-seller list in two months after publication in 2016.

Vance has a producer credit on director Ron Howard’s film, based on the book. Vanessa Taylor adapted the book for filming. 

“Hillbilly Elegy” delivers a strong flow of cinematic values. Illustrating one corner of the American dream as seen from the bottom of the bucket, it’s already on lists of next year’s likely Academy Award contenders. There is reason to regard it as credible by virtue of Vance’s producer credit. There’s no interest like self interest.

But it’s not a fun movie. 

The acting is powerful. The vocabulary comes straight from the gutter. Hearing it from the mouths of actresses such as Amy Adams, as Vance’s single mother, and Glenn Close as her mother may appal delicate senses. I have no way of knowing how others might respond to it – as so often happens, I watched the film alone so can’t assess how many walkouts. 

It gives me a contrary satisfaction to realise that in this modern age women can be comfortable using language that, as a child, I was forbidden to use especially in a woman’s hearing.

Glenn Close’s performance deserves at least an Oscar nomination, bringing her total to eight without a win. Amy Adams follows her with six and zero. 

The characters they play in “Hillbilly Elegy” are not soft and fluffy and how they deliver them is apposite to a high degree. Gabriel Basso takes the adult JD to the edge of conservative politics as convincingly as does Owen Asztalos as teenaged JD. I guess that in the US right now, political sympathies might influence the responses of individual audience members to the film more rigorously than they do in Australia.

At Dendy