Hillbilly Elegy
Netflix | Release Date: November 11, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
38
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 44 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
22
Negative:
16
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperNov 10, 2020
Hillbilly Elegy is a beautifully constructed, unforgiving, heart-tugging family epic about three generations of the Vance family. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 24, 2020
Here’s a rare example of a Netflix prestige film that neither runs too long nor overstays its welcome. While some of the A-list directors working for the streaming distributor have taken the opportunity to meander and add bloat to otherwise worthwhile projects, Ron Howard has developed this project exactly as he would have made it if it had been intended for a traditional release. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonNov 11, 2020
Adams, a six-time Oscar nominee, is likely headed to a seventh for an admittedly showy but nuanced turn that manages to bring Bev’s humanity bubbling to the surface even as her ugly side dominates — as Thoreau might say, a life of not-so-quiet desperation. Close is terrific as usual. Read full review
70
Film ThreatBradley GibsonDec 17, 2020
The 7 rating is for his movie. Vance himself, in his preachy, condescending book, gets it wrong. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 10, 2020
In effect this is a pretty standard overcoming-adversity story, particularly with the more politically oriented social observations removed. What isn’t standard is the acting. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzNov 12, 2020
It's not a great or even particularly distinctive movie, but it's heartfelt and plain-spoken enough that it might connect with viewers whose families have dealt with addiction and recovery, domestic abuse, financial deprivation, and other problems highlighted in the story. Advertisement Read full review
60
Total FilmJane CrowtherNov 10, 2020
Polished but pedestrian, Hillbilly Elegy is a boilerplate underdog tale that lacks bite – but gives good Glenn Close. Read full review
50
IGNMatt FowlerNov 25, 2020
Glenn Close and Amy Adams shine in Ron Howard's new, rather unfocused film about abuse, poverty, and addiction. Read full review
50
TimeStephanie ZacharekNov 24, 2020
Hillbilly Elegy isn’t as terrible as the trailers make it look, but as an enterprise it’s just all-around sad, a movie that courts sympathy for its characters yet ends up only as a requiem for itself. Read full review
50
ABC NewsPeter TraversNov 20, 2020
The movie dulls the social edge of J.D. Vance’s bestselling memoir about the Rust Belt’s white working class, but the performances of Glenn Close and Amy Adams make up the difference. As Mamaw, the chain-smoking matriarch of the clan, Close is simply sensational. Read full review
50
The Associated PressJake CoyleNov 12, 2020
This Hillbilly Elegy has stripped away the most sermonizing, debatable parts of the book, but it’s also denuded it of any deeper purpose, leaving us with a cosplay shell of A-list actors chewing rural scenery. Read full review
50
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiNov 11, 2020
The book is a fascinating, insightful, touching window into a unique community with immense struggles. On-screen, it’s exploitative. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 11, 2020
Worse, by neutering the specifics of where these people live and come from, Howard’s Hillbilly Elegy renders the story meaningless. Read full review
50
USA TodayBrian TruittNov 10, 2020
Hillbilly Elegy is a well-acted study of a white working-class family reaching for the American dream over three generations, though its disconnected story is what’s unfortunately lamentable. Read full review
50
VarietyOwen GleibermanNov 10, 2020
As long as Close is acting up an award-worthy storm (her performance is actually quite meticulous), Hillbilly Elegy is never less than alive. Adams does some showpiece acting of her own, but as skillful as her performance is, she never gets us to look at Bev with pity and terror. Read full review
50
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganNov 10, 2020
The main audience takeaway here will be the two main performances by Adams and Close. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenNov 10, 2020
Elegy . . . embraces the emotional messiness of a heart-wringing country song, but lacks a haunting refrain to get under your skin. Read full review
45
CNNBrian LowryNov 24, 2020
The movie, however, turns out to be the opposite of its central character -- namely, an underachiever, despite those advantages. Read full review
42
The Film StageChristian GallichioNov 10, 2020
In the end, Hillbilly Elegy is shameless Oscar bait only redeemed by Close and Bennett’s restrained work. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeNov 10, 2020
Like the book, the film version of Hillbilly Elegy goes for easy over honest every time, which is one reason why the former has been sharply criticized by those it claims to represent. Read full review
42
IndieWireDavid EhrlichNov 10, 2020
For all of the favors that Howard does to the subject of his biopic, the director can only do so much to disguise the self-serving nature of a story that was always less about where Vance came from than it was about where he wanted to go. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Simran HansNov 30, 2020
The performances create anthropological distance, not human empathy. Read full review
40
CineVueChristopher MachellNov 18, 2020
Like most of Howard’s films, Hillbilly Elegy is perfectly watchable, unchallenging and largely forgettable awards fodder. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerNov 12, 2020
Howard, mercifully, dumps most of Vance's political cant in favor of a maudlin, slow, rehab drama, carried on the backs of a cavalcade of wafer-thin characters. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyNov 10, 2020
Converting dyed-in-the-wool Appalachian pessimism into honest, bootstrappy uplift is not a task you envy Howard or his cast, as the running time slips away and no concrete point materialises. Elegy is four years late and doomed. Read full review
40
EmpireTerri WhiteNov 10, 2020
In spite of A-list acting and directing talent, this is a tick-the-boxes recovery and redemption true story that never rings true. Read full review
40
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeNov 10, 2020
Hillbilly Elegy isn’t interested in the systems that create poverty and addiction and ignorance; it just wants to pretend that one straight white guy’s ability to rise above his surroundings means that there’s no excuse for everyone else not to have done so as well. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawNov 10, 2020
This is a well-meant story of someone pulling himself up by his bootstraps, with some help from his grandma. But it feels contrived and self-conscious. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 24, 2020
Howard doesn’t make awful films, and as somebody who spent much of my earlier life in Appalachia, I’m not inclined to write this problematic portrayal off entirely. But self-satisfied people on both ends of the political spectrum will see what they want to in this story, and that’s not a compliment. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzNov 10, 2020
Make no mistake: Ron Howard’s Hillbilly Elegy is a bad film, inert and clichéd and largely devoid of cinematic imagination. But it is not a problematic film. Read full review
37
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanNov 11, 2020
The movie leaves us, like J.D.’s family, with only a mounting pile of baloney excuses for bad behavior. Read full review
35
Paste MagazineJacob OllerNov 25, 2020
While most of the film is simply mediocre-to-bad melodrama with a questionably conservative bent to its messaging, some elements stand out for how downright terrible they are. Read full review
30
Screen RantRachel LaBonteNov 24, 2020
Full of repetitive flashbacks and constant yelling, Hillbilly Elegy strives to be the next great domestic drama, but falls short in several ways. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangNov 10, 2020
Directed by Ron Howard and denuded of any meaningful politics to speak of, Hillbilly Elegy is an extended Oscar-clip montage in search of a larger purpose, an unwieldy slop bucket of door-smashing, child-slapping, husband-immolating histrionics. Read full review
30
UproxxMike RyanNov 10, 2020
If this movie was going to hit with people, I think I would be one of them. I know the people in this movie. Many of the people remind me of people in my own family. But it didn’t hit. Again, I don’t know who Hillbilly Elegy is for. Well, except maybe J.D. Vance. Read full review
25
ConsequenceBlake GobleNov 10, 2020
Hillbilly Elegy does not bring out the best in its cast, and Howard fails to bring the intensity or depth that might make something meaningful. His approach is all after-school special, all the time. Read full review
25
Vanity FairRichard LawsonNov 10, 2020
Hillbilly Elegy is both witless cosplay and a failure to interrogate any of the book’s controversial insinuations. I can’t imagine the film will satisfy those who agree with Vance or those who want to tangle with him—let alone those just looking for an engrossing family saga. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineChris BarsantiNov 10, 2020
Hillbilly Elegy feels like a bland feel-good story rather than one part of a longer tragedy with no clear end. Read full review
25
The PlaylistJason BaileyNov 10, 2020
Hillbilly Elegy has nothing to say about the circumstances that caused these addictions and resentments, and it certainly has noting useful to say about “economic anxiety.” There’s nothing remotely thoughtful or even provocative about it, which is a shame – at least that would’ve made it memorable. Read full review
20
ColliderMatt GoldbergAug 22, 2024
It’s non-stop drama, and the way the story plays out, it’s like Vance took every crazy episode from his life and played them back-to-back without pausing for a single pleasant memory or character defined beyond a single dimension. Read full review
20
PolygonRobert DanielsNov 10, 2020
Hillbilly Elegy is a prime example of a systemic failure, from script to craft to acting. Read full review
20
VoxAlissa WilkinsonNov 10, 2020
Whatever your opinion of the book, the movie is a different animal, and a startlingly terrible one. Read full review
10
The AtlanticDavid SimsDec 23, 2020
Howard’s film is nothing more than a sensational snapshot, one that feels even less authentic than many of the think pieces that followed the release of Vance’s book in 2016. To Hollywood, J. D. is just another cookie-cutter hero, one who’s defeated the haziest of villains—adversity itself. Read full review
0
Entertainment WeeklyDarren FranichNov 24, 2020
Hillbilly Elegy is two movies, one laughably bad and one boringly bad. Read full review
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