'Hillbilly Elegy' (2020, Ron Howard)

well this makes me excited to see Close anyways. How was Adams? I actually thought she looked the best in the previews but reports have been mixed at best.

Who’d a thunk it. People spent so long willing Amy Adams to the Oscar that nobody stopped to think she might end up with a Razzie first.

And if there is any justice... She will. The best way I can think to describe this performance is it’s like that bit in Monster’s Ball where Halle Berry starts kicking her sons ass (I hope I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t help laughing when that happened...) but stretched out to feature length

I mean not only does it ruin the movie by rendering horrific scenes utterly laughable on account of her complete and utterly fake, phony miscasting (it’s admirable when actors want to step outside their comfort zone but sometimes when you have become too entrenched in it then it is impossible to suspend disbelief) but it does double duty on the film at large because you’re wondering how stupid all these people are that they don’t seem at all prepared for these repeated instances of uncanny homage to Ben Stiller’s immortal turn in Friends.

Beyond her I don’t think it’s a BAD movie in that it’s very watchable, Glenn Close really is very, very good, and they don’t make Freida Pinto speak enough words in succession at any point for you to really stop and wonder what the noise coming out of her mouth is supposed to be.

This all does of course require you to ignore the intent of what this story is really trying to say (it tries for the beauty and grace of one hundred years of solitude - without the self awareness - but it’s probably closer to mein kampf), Howard (now in his EIGHTH DECADE in cinema. You LEGEND, Richie Cunningham) tries to airbrush it as much as possible, perhaps he was hoping to tap into the euphoria of a Trump reelection season without alienating everyone on the other side, but try though he might he really can’t. Somewhere down in the bowels of hell, Margaret Thatcher will be sticking this movie on repeat as soon as it ends and getting some more popcorn in the microwave.

Glenn Close was surprisingly good! I certainly don't find her Oscar worthy but I actually found her work here to be better, more genuine and authentic than in The Wife despite her prosthetics and make-up. That is really the only good thing I can say about this turkey. The writing, directing, structure, score and Amy Adams was all just awful. It doesn't even show any insight into the subject matter and it doesn't even register as a story worth telling. Lacked any kind of momentum. What a mess.

3/10

I wonder if that has anything to do with filmmakers being cognizant that films these days are usually watched on TV through a streaming service. I'd imagine it takes less data for Netflix to process something with a more compressed dynamic range, so things need to be well-lit to prevent the loss of data.

This one was a f*cking mess!! Not an awful movie but a mess. The photography and editing were bad and the pacing... Actually there was no pacing!!!

Maybe most will disagree but I didn't like Close's performance. I found it ott, like a caricature. There were very few scenes imo that might justify a nod (After leaving with her grandson).

On the other hand, although I'm not a fan of Adams, she wasn't totally off I think. As a matter of fact, afgter watching this I can see a nod happening. The category won't be very strong this year so she has a chance.

Overall, it's not garbage but I felt it was a waste of time.

5/10

this was really, really bad. a complete misfire in every department. every scene starts and ends with someone screaming their lungs out, running around and being hysterical. the first 20 minutes feel already like it's the third act climax, it's always a notch higher and louder than it should be. the back-and-forth structure is lousy and incoherent, with flashbacks within flashbacks, and killing any narrative momentum the film could achieve.

the worst part is that it's boring. it's exhausting to watch, it's dull and it's dead inside. it has no live, as much as amy adams and glenn close strut and scream around. it's not even a so-bad-it's-good type of movie. to it's just repetitive and pointless. it has nothing to say and has no character nor plot development. it drags, it feels a groundhog day of rich people cosplaying as poor people, with nothing interesting to say. every new scene is exactly like the one before and equally bad.

I couldn't care less about this set of characters, and I feel sorry for the good actors stuck with such a lousy, obvious, heavy-handed screenplay. amy adams, one of the best of her generation, delivers a truly awful performance, shocking me 'cause I didn't imagine she'd have such bad performance in her. it feels like a betrayal even to similar characters she has played brilliantly before, such as sharp objects and the fighter.

glenn close is just one-note. she's there and has very little to do, when she has meatier material, she fails to give her character any internal life. she's not as bad as adams, but it's not a good performance either and it's just slightly above caricature. she’s not as actively bad as adams, but honestly, the more I think about this performance, the less I like it.

and the less said about the two boys who play j.d. vance, the better, two non-presences that don't register at all, and when we're left alone with young adult j.d. in the last fifteen minutes of the movie, the whole thing just becomes a black hole.

when all's said and done, hillbilly elegy is the ultimate oscar thirst trap, one so obvious and poorly done that becomes a laughing stock. I honestly cannot think of one single good thing to highlight here.

1/5

This fucking guy lol

Supposedly it's a great book though........um, what is that not the way the mob is rolling?

My reaction

My original thoughts when I saw this movie in 2022.



My opinions have not changed. It was an awful movie, it STILL is an awful movie.

Vance as VP is such a Trump pick. You know he liked the guy’s minor celebrity credentials

As for this, I have not seen the movie or read the book