Hillbilly Elegy on Netflix: Just a gorgeous and emotional ride

I had actually forgotten that I had read the book that this film is based on quite a few years ago and h I don't have a great deal of faith in Netflix films these days I got about 10 minutes into this one before I realized exactly where the story was going and remembered how it is just such a wonderful TRUE story of triumph for an individual who grows up in an environment where no one is meant to succeed.

src

Without giving too much of the story away I'll just say that this story is about J.D. who is a boy growing up in Appalachia where everyone is poor and for the most part no one ever amounts to anything. That is a sad and very true reality of this very real part of the United States. His story is an exception unfortunately, as most of the people that come from that part of the world end up on government assistance or eventually end up in prison, or both.

His family is far from perfect and they have a ton of problems when they are trying to grow up. It is only throw the tight bond that their extremely flawed family has that J.D. is able to break free from the bonds that shackle so many people from this part of the world.

src

The movies is directed by Ron Howard so of course no expense was spared in the making of this film although Netflix is very secretive about how much they spend on their movies. Even though there is very little in the way of special effects in this movie, the estimated production costs were somewhere along the line of $45 million.

The thing that gets me about this film is that there were multiple times that I was brought to tears by the touching events taking place on screen and even though I can not relate to the growing up hardships that J.D. faced in his life due to having had a much different upbringing, I do have a soul and I do have empathy. The fact that this man was able to emerge on the other end of all of this as a success is quite the story and it is a story and film definitely worthy of Ron Howard's attention and the budget they poured into this absolutely amazing story.

src

Everyone in this film is outstanding but Glen Close's depiction of Mamaw Vance is just a thing of legend. If she doesn't win best supporting actress for this role then there are some people at the academy that need to be shot. But since she is Glen Close I think it is pretty safe to say that she will probably get exactly that. She is absolutely outstanding in this film and when the end credits rolled I actually couldn't believe my eyes when I saw her name on the screen. The makeup that they used on her and the voice she adapts during her performance is very not like herself and I was simply blown away by her performance.

I say this as someone that doesn't particularly care for Glen Close as well.

Should you watch it?

Yes yes yes yes! This movie is one of the best films I have seen in 2020 and is just an absolutely perfect film. If you don't at least get choked up while watching this movie there is something wrong with you and you should probably go see a psychiatrist immediately because there is a good chance you are a narcissist of the highest degree and will likely end up being a serial killer in the not-too-distant future.

I sense multiple Oscar nods coming for this film in January, which kind of makes sense given when they decided to release it despite the fact that they finished filming all of it well over a year ago.

Watch this film as soon as possible: I promise you will not regret it