Hillbilly Elegy: Exploring J.D. Vance’s Compelling Memoir Through a Stellar Cast

Hillbilly Elegy is a heartbreaking tale of a family in constant crisis due to the consequences of addiction and violence in the home. This story is based on the memoir published by J.D.Vance in 2016. When you pop the popcorn and settle in with this Netflix film, be sure you also have the Kleenex nearby. This film is a tear-jerker and, at times, is quite painful to watch. Anyone triggered by films with drug use and domestic violence should probably find something else to Netflix and chill with.

The plot

A Yale law student drew back to his hometown grapples with family history, Appalachian values, and the American dream. Vance wrote about growing up poor, living with a heroin-addicted mother (played by Amy Adams), and clawing his way into Yale Law School. This film depicts communities gutted by drug abuse and poverty. Check out the trailer here.

Hillbilly Elegy Trailer

The reviews are in …

If you read the Atlantic, you may have seen their article by David Sims claiming this is the worst movie of the year. Sorry, Sims. You kind of missed the point of basically the entire film. We’ll just have to agree to disagree.

Personally, I think that Amy Adams and Glenn Close, who plays Mamaw, and is almost unrecognizable, nailed the roles they play as mother and daughter. Addiction isn’t pretty. And honestly, Amy Adams has never looked worse. This film accurately portrays how harsh drugs and alcohol abuse can affect the physical appearance over the years of an addict.

How it made me feel

While watching this film with my mom, I couldn’t help but draw on the similarities between Bev Vance (Amy Adams) and myself. I didn’t grow up in poverty nor was the home I lived in ever violent. In fact, I don’t even recall seeing my parents argue. When they did, it was in whispers behind the privacy of their bedroom door.

However, early on in my recovery, I learned to look for the similarities instead of the differences. That said, I very much identified with the role Bev plays as a young single mother desperate for a man to swoop in and make her life better. Always hopeful, chaos continues to follow Bev despite her efforts to want a better life.

Bev loves her children, but like any true addict, the choice to put them before herself is not an easy one for Bev. I know this pain personally. It is one filled with shame and remorse. I also had my son at a young age and I struggled to find the balance between my mom life and my party girl life.

There were also times depicted in this film when Bev somewhat has it together with a good career and a maybe decent fella. Hopefully, there were times during my twenties when I also had it somewhat together as a functioning alcoholic. For me, that decade was filled with more pain, shame, and guilt from all of the bad choices I seemingly couldn’t stop making.

Personally watching films like this for me isn’t triggering. If anything, they serve as a big reminder of all of the things that haven’t happened “yet” that are out there waiting for me should I choose to relapse. And trust me when I say, it will be a choice. Alcohol isn’t just going to pour itself down my throat. I can’t accidentally snort a line of cocaine. But I didn’t always have a choice…and so it seems, neither does Beth for most of the movie.

Now, I don’t want to spoil it for you if you haven’t read the book or seen the movie. So I won’t tell you how the movie ends. Just know going into it, it’s a hard movie to watch because of how accurately the roles are played out. This isn’t the movie that you’re going to watch over and over because it lifts your spirits. It certainly had my mom in tears and asking me even more questions about my past alcohol and drug abuse.

Maybe that’s why I like this movie, and the Atlantic does not. It addresses real issues of addiction and violence that are common in far too many homes. This is especially true in low-income communities with limited resources.

The film also shows how codependent families can be. Addiction affects everyone in the family, not just one that is afflicted. This story shows how cycles can be repeated over generations until the cycle is somehow broken. Even though they mean well, it shows how damaging enablers can be. Time and time again, it has been my personal experience and that of many others I have known in recovery that you must hit your own personal bottom that no one can swoop in and fix for you. It wasn’t until I was out of “good ideas” and completely hopeless that I was able to reach out for help. As much as my parents would have wanted to, they couldn’t fix it. I had to do it for myself. And so does Bev.

Maybe you’ll like this film, maybe you won’t. While I haven’t read the book, maybe it was better than the film. What I do hope is that people keep talking about addiction. That’s how we can keep chipping away at the stigma that has gone on for far too long.

Maybe someone who needs to see this movie, who needs to reach out to help, maybe this movie helps nudge them closer to their bottom. That’s the thing about hitting a bottom: once you’ve been there, there are only really two choices. Do anything and everything you can to climb back up or stumble along until you hit a new and even lower bottom. One that can and often does end in death.

The Sobees Movie Score: 4 out of 5

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