The core is a family story. Social issues are just background plates, and the film does not clearly point out the connection between the fate of the characters and the larger environment. "Me" JD's grandparents eloped from Kentucky to work in a steel factory in Ohio when they were young. Their grandfather was an alcoholic, and my mother became a single mother early, working as a nurse at the local hospital to pull two children. "I" graduated from high school and went to the army in exchange for sponsorship to finish college, work three jobs, and go to law school on aid. My sister married my first love. Fortunately, I have a stable family and a living job. The shadows of early pregnancy, addiction, single parenthood, violence, mental problems hang over every generation in this family.
The movie switches back and forth between childhood memories and the present (during law school looking for an internship). The selected stories are interesting.
When I was a child in Kentucky's summer vacation, my uncle and grandfather did not hesitate to help when he was bullied;
Misfits and awkwardness at law school networking formal dinners;
Witnessing her mother's first breakdown and experiencing her moodiness at an early age;
Mother was hospitalized for a sudden drug overdose and needed "me" to go home at the critical moment of looking for an internship;
Interviews with admissions teachers because of tuition fees and anxiety about finding an internship;
Drive back to Ohio for more than ten hours to settle mother with sister; mother refuses to help;
When I was a child, I had to help my mother cheat on her urine test in order to keep her job;
In junior high school, life was turbulent and grades declined, and he got into trouble with delinquent teenagers;
The grandmother rescued "I" from her mother's chaotic life; the tough grandmother put down her dignity and asked for more food, and woke up to study hard;
Drive all the way back to the east coast to catch up with the interview.
Sister Lindsay in the movie said when JD broke down and didn't want to help her mother anymore, let's start with forgiveness. Angel reincarnated? The reason given by Linsay is that when her mother was a child, her grandfather was an alcoholic and had a rough life, so forgive her. When she needs people who believe in her time and time again, she cannot give up as a child. Although these reasons are too unacceptable to me, I can't help but wonder how my sister avoided the shadow of her grandmother and mother. Forgiving is also letting go of myself. I can only forgive her in a broad sense by abstracting the specific things about my mother, stripping her of her particularity to JD, and only looking at another human being as a person. And how did the grandmother survive her husband's alcoholism and her daughter's drug addiction? What role did she play in her mother's plight? What are her demons? Most of the mothers played by Amy Adams are in a state of collapse, showing great acting skills, but also lacking context. On the one hand, she hid in a cabinet when she was a child and saw her grandfather beat her grandmother, and her grandmother set fire to her grandfather. On the other hand, her grandfather's death led to her first drug use.
The film's ambitious attempt to portray a great female figure failed in choosing to tell the story through JD's point of view. He learned from his sister that his grandfather was an alcoholic until he was at the door of the rehabilitation center. As a child, there are some things he can't know (adults won't tell him to protect him), and the movie doesn't mention it at all, such as what his biological father was like, how his mother slipped into the abyss again and again, and how his grandparents did what. At the same time, the movie will tell the growth of JD through these stories, how not to give up important opportunities in life and escape the rust belt. These two themes do not conflict, but it is difficult to balance them in one movie, and in the end, neither of the stories is told well.
Very low reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. The spray points are mainly focused on overexertion, character portrayal, the original author's negative comments on the rust belt community, and lack of empathy and respect for those who have not come out of poverty.
The Hillbilly Elegy movie is full of tension and not exaggerated for people with similar experiences. But it's also true that the plot is incoherent and unpleasant at both ends. I don't think those two hours were wasted anyway.
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