Summary
When a phone call forces a Yale Law student back to his childhood home, he reminiscences about his family history and reflects on his own future. Drama, starring Amy Adams, Glenn Close, Gabriel Basso and Haley Bennett
When a phone call forces a Yale Law student back to his childhood home, he reminiscences about his family history and reflects on his own future. Drama, starring Amy Adams, Glenn Close, Gabriel Basso and Haley Bennett
In this dramatisation of JD Vance's acclaimed 2016 memoir, getting to Yale is no mean achievement for a student from raw Kentucky mountain folk, yet staying in school while dealing with his volatile mother's ongoing personal issues may prove the sterner challenge. Amy Adams gives a showy performance running through man trouble, substance abuse and explosive rage as the protagonist's loving yet chaotic mum, while a frizzy-wigged Glenn Close proves a serial scene-stealer as the clan's doughty matriarch, dispensing pithy wisdom and tough love. With A Beautiful Mind director Ron Howard returning to drama after a foray into documentary, all this plays like a frontal assault on the sensibilities of awards season voters, lending a somewhat calculating air to potentially affecting material. Still, the back-and-forth storytelling is adeptly constructed, Gabriel Basso believably holds everything together as the older JD, and there's much truthful observation of the stakes and perils of social mobility. Hillbilly Elegy is never less than watchable, but it does rather give off a distracting aura of Hollywood A-listers artfully slumming it.
role | name |
---|---|
Bev | Amy Adams |
Mamaw | Glenn Close |
JD Vance | Gabriel Basso |
Lindsay | Haley Bennett |
Usha | Freida Pinto |
Papaw | Bo Hopkins |
Young JD Vance | Owen Asztalos |
Matt | Jesse C Boyd |
Bonnie (Mamaw, 30s) | Sunny Mabrey |
Young Lori (6 years) | Lucy Capri |
role | name |
---|---|
Director | Ron Howard |