Hillbilly Elegy

2020 is slowly but surely coming to a close and most people are feeling like that shift can’t come fast enough at this point. This last week we Americans all did our best to celebrate our Thanksgiving in ceremonies modified by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Netflix released Hillbilly Elegy on the Tuesday before the holiday and some may see the Appalachian memoir as a bit non-festive. Critics have been pretty hard on this one directed by Ron Howard and starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams. The Film Board will take its own turn here, reviewing the film adaptation of J.D. Vance’s story of personal geography, growth and change.

Tommy Metz III, Ray Delancey, Pete Wright, and Justin "JJ" Jaeger will head for the hills to reconnect with these voices of Vance’s past. We’ll talk about family drama on film both real and imagined and try to discover the good and bad within any type of story that comes across as tough, but real. The autobiographical nature of the story is important in this one too. What’s the purpose behind telling a story like this now and what does it tell us about the people and their characters in it? We’ll work to compare the remembered drama in the stories of a person’s life to fictional family dramas created in Hollywood’s recent past. It’s interesting to find what hits you harder and what you find more effective on screen. Let’s go back and try to sort it all out on The Film Board.

Film Sundries

• Watch this film: Apple
• Script Transcript
• Original theatrical trailer
• Original Material
• Flickchart
• Letterboxd

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