I haven't read the book, but the movie DEFINITELY belongs in one of those "so bad its good" categories where the film is UNintentionally hilarious.
I felt bad for laughing at the J.D. Vance grandma character ("MawMaw") after I found out at the end of the film that she was based on his actual, real-life grandma.
Jed Clampett & clan would take one look at this film's characters and go "Dude, take it down a notch"
I don't want to get into it at this hour, but it's worth separating two issues here. As a matter of film criticism, there was a great deal of discussion of Amy Adams' and Glenn Close's performances, with some critics applauding and others criticizing overacting. That discussion extended to Ron Howard and the critique that he and his two leading ladies had come down with Oscar bait disease. This is a long running debate in MovieLand about the dangers of playing with trauma porn in movies.
The parallel issue, however, is whether this aspect of the movie should be read as a critique of hillbilly culture. IMHO, no. This has to do with the depiction of alcoholism, drug addiction and family trauma. The Amy Adams character may have been the daughter of Appalachian transplants, but she was a nurse in a small city hospital in southern Ohio who got messed up with prescription drugs, to which she had access at the hospital. You can set that story anywhere.
We've had some long discussions on FR about movies dealing with alcoholism and addiction. There are a lot of them. Some of them are very good. Some of them make the Amy Adams and Glenn Close characters in Hillbilly Elegy look tame. In others, the addiction and codependency issues are played with restraint. High bottom and low bottom is a real distinction. What will ring true to any viewer will depend on personal experiences and therefore differing points of view. 32 years for me. I've been to a lot of meetings. I didn't bat an eye at anything in Hillbilly Elegy. I'm just grateful that I got out easier, and I've heard a lot worse. Go to a big city meeting in the wrong part of town for an eye opener -- and you can hear the same thing in the upscale suburbs as well, just not with the same frequency because people living in million dollar homes tend not to have a lot of violent felonies and prison time on their records.
In the context of movies, this problem is compounded by the risks of sensationalized stereotyping for viewers who have never been through it personally. Trauma porn sells tickets. Did Hillbilly Elegy stray over the line? Maybe we should have another thread soon about movies about alcoholism. There have been some honorable additions to the canon in the last couple of years and the idea has been rattling around in my head for the movie ping list, but I've been waiting for Outrun. IMHO, Saoirsa Ronan is one of the best of the rising young actresses, and I'm looking forward to seeing her take. I'll just note that alcoholism and addiction are issues that movie industry people know a great deal about.