Netflix True Story Drama Shoots Into Top 10 After Real-World Events

Reviews have long been mixed over the Hillbilly Elegy film. Though it was directed by Ron Howard and picked up in a bidding war by Netflix, and is indeed based on the true story of Vance’s life, Vance himself has been a controversial figure for many.

I would speculate that this, above all else, is what makes some critics seem so biased against it. Still, no one denies the events of the book or the film, and those events highlight a spectacular life lived by the potential future president of the United States of America. 

Hillbilly Elegy opens up with a dual timeline. In the present day (2011), Vance (played by Gabriel Basso) is graduating from Yale Law School and hoping to secure an internship for the summer in Washington, D.C.

His girlfriend, Usha (Freida Pinto), is loving and supportive, encouraging Vance to move forward with his dreams. As he struggles with three jobs just to support himself and aims to achieve the next goal on his list, he looks back at how far he’s come. 

We watch a young Vance growing up in a household with his mother, Bev (Amy Adams), and his older sister, Lindsay (Haley Bennett) in poor neighborhoods in Middletown, Ohio. Plus, there is life with his grandmother, Mawmaw (Glenn Close), in Jackson, Kentucky, which is located in the heart of the Appalachian mountains.

Vance’s prospects are few, as most kids who come from the white working class are, and he’s most likely to follow the road his mother is on — alcohol, drugs, and a constant stream of lovers she hopes will keep her and her kids afloat. This is truly a hillbilly elegy. 

After getting into trouble, Vance goes to live with Mawmaw, who decides to get tough with him and offer him a better life than she could give his mother.

As her health begins failing and she struggles to pay the bills, Vance has a moment of clarity and shifts into high gear. He gets a job, starts doing better in school, and joins the Marines when he comes of age, only returning home when he gets news that Mawmaw has died.

Hillbilly Elegy then flashes forward to the present day, where we see Vance getting a phone call that his mother has overdosed on heroin. Amy Adams really is at her best here. 

Now, Vance has to decide whether to make his interview on Monday morning, or go take care of his mother.

It is this decision, and how the story unfolds afterward, that makes Hillbilly Elegy the film that it is: a heartwarming one about a man who must leave his way of life behind in order to succeed in life and make something of himself.

At the same time, Vance makes it clear that, though he was tempted, he realizes he can never ignore his roots. Indeed, he must honor them. 

Vance has been a political hot button since he entered politics in July of 2021, backing Trump after the January 6 debacle and remaining one of his few political supporters in the Republican party.

This won him praise from Trump and Trump supporters and sheer hatred from those who blame Trump for what they saw as an attempted coup. Still, it seems the public cannot figure him out.

For those looking for a bit of a glimpse behind the curtain at J.D. Vance, at least in his own words, you can stream Hillbilly Elegy on Netflix now. It’s worth 4 out of 5 stars.