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
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
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