I read Hillbilly Elegy a few years back.

An interesting book about a rural family and the young man who emerged to go to school among the elites.

It was a flawed family but one filled with a lot of solid core qualities that contrasted with so much of what we see. And it was a world we rarely experience from Hollywood.

So does Hollywood fuck up the movie?

Oh yea.

The biggest sin is turning J.D.’s story of living in two worlds into a nasty showy drama piece for Amy Adams. She dominates the movie with one nasty mistake after another, all center stage.

We get about four minutes of J.D. at Yale and living in the elite world with people inclined to believe his Kentucky home was a redneck Mars.

The director is Ron Howard who has done some great stuff. How he let this screenplay go off the rails like this is so disappointing.

But let’s face it. I would bet none of these people making this movie actually have any real feel for a rural Kentucky setting and how a family can love their world, even if they want to escape too.

Critics have panned the shit out of the movie, which in this case is a surprise and to their credit.

Why you would take the story of a young man who loves his flawed rural family and wants to enter another world, and turn it into the Amy Adams let’s get an acting award separate movie. It is easy enough for any critic to be puzzled, disappointed, or in my case, pissed.