Hillbilly Elegy Reviews Are In

[just444]

Amy Adams and Glenn Close elevate well but #HillbillyElegy is just the wrong movie at the wrong time and feels like the cinematic equivalent of "all lives matter" & there are "very fine people on both sides." J.D. Vance's story unfolds like a Hallmark channel Sunday morning reel. pic.twitter.com/gY3jBl1LJd
- Clayton Davis (@AwardsCircuit) November

Comments

[jontargaryen]

This part of the metacritic summary is so weird to me:

Fueled by memories of his grandmother Mamaw

Mamaw is just an Appalachian word for grandmother. Why is it written like it's her name? Would you say "his grandmother Grandma"?

Anyway, fuck JD Vance.

[babyyoda]

I’m from Texas and had a grandma called mamaw, I think it’s used as a name some places

[jontargaryen]

I think they're using it as her name because her first name isn't said in the movie, but it's just mildly disorienting to read "his grandmother Grandmother." That said, I probably only noticed it because Vance thinks he's a very special snowflake for calling his grandmother "mamaw." He thinks it's some kind of quirky thing because not everyone in suburban Ohio does that, but like, it's pretty basic/uninteresting Southern slang.

[babyyoda]

Tbh it was news to me that it’s an Appalachian word, I’m also unfamiliar with this film maker but from what I’m reading the book and movie do not interest me. Just weighing in on the mamaw aspect lol

[ellie_andrews]

lol does he? i haven't read the book but i haven't heard good things. i call my g-ma mamaw too. :P

[jontargaryen]

You know how sometimes diaspora kids will have an incomplete and/or exoticized view of The Motherland™ because of a combination of misunderstandings/ignorance and a feeling of disconnection from the place where they actually live? JD Vance is like that, but his motherland is one state away.