HILLBILLY ELEGY Review

It's difficult to know where to begin with Hillbilly Elegy. In one sense, we have to consider the context of the individuals this story is about and in another we must accept this specific facet to be the truth of their lives. How does one reconcile that author J.D. Vance's memoir on which this film is based is both undoubtedly a vivid recollection of his own childhood as well as a romanticized portrait of a place in America where the pride of having been left behind has a lot to do with the refusal to move forward? The conflicted feelings about how and what the film is representing naturally extend to the DNA of the film itself as, in the opening moments, Gabriel Basso's Vance tells us how much he loved visiting rural Kentucky when he was a boy despite being raised in the rust belt of Ohio; it was the memories he made while visiting the Blue Grass State that he was most fond of. The film quickly contradicts these kind words with a scene where a thirteen year-old Vance (Owen Asztalos) encounters a band of local bullies before being rescued by his local relatives in Kentucky. Vance is obviously sentimental about these moments and has therefore made them more appealing in his memory, but how far does the gaze of these rose-tinted glasses reach? Depending on the author's age at the time of the events being described, what circumstances are being missed and what details are being diminished? How much is Vance actually misremembering? There are a lot of questions left unanswered that director Ron Howard doesn't feel the need to address as he largely focuses on the core family dynamic at the heart of Vance's story, but what's riveting about the execution of Hillbilly Elegy is that it feels the need to explain as much as it does chronicle the reasons these people have ended up the way they have. There is this notion that because they really are well-meaning people underneath their poor life choices that they deserve some type of exception when it comes to discussing said shortcomings. Aside from the complicated cultural discussion around the "hillbilly condition" though, and how sorry viewers should be made to feel for these individuals who can't get out of their own way, Howard and screenwriter Vanessa Taylor (The Shape of Water) smartly focus on the prevalent themes around how much community and family genuinely mattered to Vance while growing up in these undeniably unforgiving environments and the complexities of the problems he faced and deals with well into his adult life due to this jagged support system.       

THE KINGS OF SUMMER Home Video Review

The Kings of Summer was one of the first out of the gate, but has been the last entry in 2013's summer coming-of-age tales that I was able to view. It comes sooner after seeing The Spectacular Now than any other margin between the other films which may or may not detract from what I thought of the film, but as it is more easily compared to something of a mix between Mud and The Way, Way Back I was rather thrilled by what I received here in terms of conveying what nostalgia means to different people and why it is so vital to our existence. While it is difficult to say one is better than the other, what The Kings of Summer has going for it is a distinct set of style. In his feature debut Jordan Vogt-Roberts has enlivened the typical going-ons of the doldrums of summer to a couple of teenagers by infusing it with a lively sense of location and purpose in character that isn't so easily defined in script form. Not to take away from the script which has given the director and his stars solid, genuine characters to work with and a wry sense of humor that consistently surprises with its timing and wit. While the most obvious culprit of this highly funny film comes in the form of Moises Arias's odd man out Biaggio (and he is so awkwardly hilarious and random it will be what you take away from the film), but I was more surprised at the level of inclusion that Nick Offerman's character received and the level at which Vogt-Roberts seems to have allowed him to let his own sense of humor run free. At its core, The Kings of Summer is as much a story of childhood friends and making memories as it is the story of a father and son relationship that has had an unbelievable amount of strain placed on it due to the loss of the wife and mother in the scenario. Both Offerman and other feature newcomer, Nick Robinson, who plays his son Joe bring a covered mournfulness to their performances that tell us early on their is something more to who these people are and that we should stay engaged to get to know them better, watch them grow and come to realize how special and how humble it is simply living in the now. Good news for audiences is that it isn't tough to stay engaged given the caliber of inventiveness, writing and performances on display here. That it doesn't suffer from fatigue is a minor miracle, that it manages to turn out a few memorable moments to define itself bodes all the better for it.