THE MOVIE PLOT HILLBILLY ELEGY - MOVIE SYNOPSIS
THE HILLBILLY ELEGY MOVIE PLOT -
HILLBILLY ELEGY
In 1997, young JD Vance (Owen Aztalos) lives in Middletown Ohio, but spends much of his time in rural Jackson, Kentucky
where his extended family lives. His grandmother Mamaw (Glenn Close) fled her family from there after getting pregnant at
thirteen. JD’s family - Mawaw, sister Lindsay (Haley Bennett), mother Bev (Amy Adams), and grandfather Papaw (Bo
Hopkins) are leaving a visit to Middletown but can’t locate JD. He has gone down to the creek, where some other boys
assault him until he is rescued by some Vance family men. The family returns to Ohio.
As a young man JD (Gabriel Basso) works his way into Yale law school, taking on massive student loan debt while working
three jobs. He is worried about his interviews for all the big law firms, especially since without a good job he will owe so much
money, but his girlfriend Usha (Frieda Pinto) encourages him. At a big networking event, he feels out of place with all the
fancy people. He calls Usha to ask about which fork to use and which wine to drink.
He then gets a call from Lindsay, who tells him Bev overdosed on heroin. He returns to the dinner table, where he gets in an
uncomfortable conversation about his past with the other diners when one of them - a law partner - refers to his family as
“rednecks” and he snaps back at him. Lindsay calls again and begs him to come home and help her take care of their
mother, but he says that it’s interview week for law firm jobs.
In flashback to childhood, young JD remembers Easter with his family. Bev’s boyfriend brings a dog for the kids, which gets
loose as Bev screams at the kids not to let the dog pee on her rug - which it does. She screams at JD, who then knocks over
her Easter eggs. She curses at him and sends him to his room. Later, Bev comes to him to apologize and takes him to buy
baseball cards. When the clerk is rude to them, Bev steals the cards for JD.
On the way home, Bev tells JD she’s considering moving them in with her boyfriend. JD says he isn’t sure because if they
break up they’ll just have to move out again, and says that someone said she has a new boyfriend all the time. Bev becomes
incensed, demanding to know how he lets someone talk about his mother that way, and begins speeding claiming she’ll kill
them both.
When they stop, she hits JD repeatedly and he flees to a stranger’s house, where he calls Mamaw as the stranger locks the
door. Bev breaks into the stranger’s house to get at him and is eventually arrested. Mamaw arrives to pick up JD, but as the
police load Bev into a car, JD demands they release her and tells the police that Bev never hit her, and so they release her.
In the present, Usha calls to ask about the interview and JD reveals what happened to his mother and that he’s headed back
to his home, despite the interviews. He arrives at the hospital, where she finds Bev fighting with the hospital staff because
they don’t have a bed for her to stay overnight and she has nowhere to go. JD then gets a call from the office of one of the law
partners who offers him a final interview the next morning. He asks if he can move it since he’s ten hours away but he can’t.
In flashback, JD remembers when he, Bev, and Mamaw found Papaw’s body. At the funeral, Bev is taking prescription pills.
In narration, JD explains that when Papaw died the only person who ever got Bev was gone, and she seemed further away.
At work - Bev is a nurse - Bev begins stealing medications and taking them herself. She borrows a co-worker’s rollerblades
and blades through the hospital until a doctor calls security on her and she’s fired.
At home, the news about Bev’s firing upsets JD, Lindsay, and Mamaw. This leads to a fight where Bev slaps Lindsay and
she flees to her boyfriend’s. Later, Mamaw and JD watch Terminator 2 when there is a huge commotion outside. JD runs out
and finds Bev screaming and bleeding from her wrists, having tried to kill herself. Lindsay tells her mom they all miss Papaw,
but Bev screams that it was her dad and she doesn’t understand.
In present day, JD tries to find somewhere for his mom to stay while at a cookout at Lindsay’s. Usha calls him and when she
offers to come help out so he can go to the interview, he rudely snaps at her that his mother is a drug addict she doesn’t want
to deal with that. He flashes back to visiting Bev in a rehab after her suicide attempt. She tells him when she gets out things
will be different. In the present, Lindsay and JD bring her to a new rehab, where JD has to put three thousand on separate
credit cards to check Bev in.
Bev decides to flee and not go to rehab, and she and JD get into a huge fight. He tells her she’s selfish and doesn’t care at
all, and she tells him he just wants to feel superior. He asks her if she’s trying to kill herself, and she insists she’s already
tried. He asks Lindsay why she forgives her, and Lindsay tells JD something he never knew - Bev’s childhood was worse
than theirs. Papaw used to come home drunk and beat Mamaw, and Mamaw once lit Papaw on fire. JD talks to Bev and tells
her about Usha.
In flashback, Bev surprises everyone by suddenly marrying her boss Ken. They have to move in with him and have to get rid
of the dog since Ken is allergic. JD’s new stepbrother Travis wants him to smoke pot, but JD won’t since his mother has drug
problems. Later, Bev asks JD to give her a urine sample to give to the nursing board. JD refuses, furious, and Mamaw hears
what has happened. Mamaw tells JD to do it, making JD angry, saying that Bev is the way she is because Mamaw never put
her foot down. Mamaw tells JD that family is the only thing that means a damn, and insists he do it, which he does. He asks to
live with her and she says she can’t do that to Bev.
Later, Mamaw collapses and ends up in the hospital. JD asks her if she’s going to die, and she tells him she doesn’t know.
JD begins doing poorly in school, and when some of Travis’s friends and drinking and want to go do vandalism at a former
place of work, he offers Mamaw’s car to take them there. They go and destroy the place until the police nearly catch them.
Lindsay tells Mamaw about the incident, and she remembers after Bev was nearly arrested telling her to take responsibility,
and Bev finding Mamaw just as bad.
Mamaw marches into Bev’s house, finds JD smoking weed with Travis, and tells JD he’s moving in with her. Bev says she
can’t take him, but JD says he wants to go. Bev tells them they were made for each other. Mamaw is tough on JD, wanting
him to work hard and stop hanging out with deadbeats. She wants him to do his homework, but he says he can’t without an
expensive calculator. She tells him to go get one, and he tries to steal one but is caught.
Mamaw picks him up, gets him the calculator - which he throws out the window and screams at her that he hates her. She
tells him he needs to decide if he’s going to be somebody or not. In a flashback, JD notices how Mamaw can’t afford her pills
and has to split her tiny meals on wheels meal in half to feed them both. He begins helping her out around the house, gets a
job, and begins trying very hard and doing excellent in school, which makes Mamaw emotional.
In the present, JD takes Bev to her boyfriend Ray’s, where he begins throwing her stuff out the window and calling her a junkie
whore. JD tries to break it to attack him, then stops when a horrified neighbor sees him. He asks Lindsay if Bev can stay with
her, but she says she can’t because Lindsay has children. She suggests JD bring Bev to a nearby motel and drop her off so
he can get back for his interview, which he does.
JD returns to the motel with food for Bev and finds her injecting herself with heroin. He rips it out of her hands and flushes it as
she screams. Bev cries and he helps her get to bed, and remembers flashes of many times in his life, including Mamaw’s
passing. He tells Bev he loves her and wants to help her but he can’t stay. He tells her Lindsay is on the way and tells her not
to give up. On the way back, he calls Usha and apologizes. He asks if he scared her off, and she says no, and decides to
keep talking to him so he can stay awake to make the all-night drive. He tells her all about his family, and Mamaw. Usha says
she wishes she could have met her.
The next day, JD calls Usha and says he’s close but isn’t going to make it and asks her to go down and ask the interviewer to
wait. She rushes out to do so and discovers JD is home already. JD goes to his interview, and over narration explains that
his family isn’t perfect but they gave him the chance to have more than they did. Post-script notes how JD graduated, married
Usha, had two kids, and moved to Cincinnati. Lindsay, her husband, and three kids live in Middletown. Bev works as a
housecleaner, spends time with her grandchildren, and has been sober for six years.
Related Movies:
UNCLE FATAL
FRANK AFFAIR TIGERTAIL HUSTLERS UNCORKED
JD Vance (Gabriel Basso) is about to graduate from law school and has a very important law internship interview scheduled
when he gets a call from his sister Lindsay (Haley Bennett) that his mother Bev (Amy Adams) has overdosed on heroin.
Flashbacks reveal that JD grew up extremely poor, and Bev was extremely volatile and had a drug problem, leading to JD
living with his grandmother Mamaw (Glenn Close), who taught him how he needed to make something of himself. In the
present, JD helps Bev get settled but tells her he has to leave, and returns in time to make his lawyer interview. He eventually
gets married and moves back to Ohio, where Bev has stayed sober for six years.
THANKS FOR READING HILLBILLY ELEGY THE MOVIE PLOT
HILLBILLY ELEGY
In 1997, young JD Vance (Owen Aztalos) lives in Middletown Ohio, but spends much of his time in rural Jackson, Kentucky
where his extended family lives. His grandmother Mamaw (Glenn Close) fled her family from there after getting pregnant at
thirteen. JD’s family - Mawaw, sister Lindsay (Haley Bennett), mother Bev (Amy Adams), and grandfather Papaw (Bo
Hopkins) are leaving a visit to Middletown but can’t locate JD. He has gone down to the creek, where some other boys
assault him until he is rescued by some Vance family men. The family returns to Ohio.
As a young man JD (Gabriel Basso) works his way into Yale law school, taking on massive student loan debt while working
three jobs. He is worried about his interviews for all the big law firms, especially since without a good job he will owe so much
money, but his girlfriend Usha (Frieda Pinto) encourages him. At a big networking event, he feels out of place with all the
fancy people. He calls Usha to ask about which fork to use and which wine to drink.
He then gets a call from Lindsay, who tells him Bev overdosed on heroin. He returns to the dinner table, where he gets in an
uncomfortable conversation about his past with the other diners when one of them - a law partner - refers to his family as
“rednecks” and he snaps back at him. Lindsay calls again and begs him to come home and help her take care of their
mother, but he says that it’s interview week for law firm jobs.
In flashback to childhood, young JD remembers Easter with his family. Bev’s boyfriend brings a dog for the kids, which gets
loose as Bev screams at the kids not to let the dog pee on her rug - which it does. She screams at JD, who then knocks over
her Easter eggs. She curses at him and sends him to his room. Later, Bev comes to him to apologize and takes him to buy
baseball cards. When the clerk is rude to them, Bev steals the cards for JD.
On the way home, Bev tells JD she’s considering moving them in with her boyfriend. JD says he isn’t sure because if they
break up they’ll just have to move out again, and says that someone said she has a new boyfriend all the time. Bev becomes
incensed, demanding to know how he lets someone talk about his mother that way, and begins speeding claiming she’ll kill
them both.
When they stop, she hits JD repeatedly and he flees to a stranger’s house, where he calls Mamaw as the stranger locks the
door. Bev breaks into the stranger’s house to get at him and is eventually arrested. Mamaw arrives to pick up JD, but as the
police load Bev into a car, JD demands they release her and tells the police that Bev never hit her, and so they release her.
In the present, Usha calls to ask about the interview and JD reveals what happened to his mother and that he’s headed back
to his home, despite the interviews. He arrives at the hospital, where she finds Bev fighting with the hospital staff because
they don’t have a bed for her to stay overnight and she has nowhere to go. JD then gets a call from the office of one of the law
partners who offers him a final interview the next morning. He asks if he can move it since he’s ten hours away but he can’t.
In flashback, JD remembers when he, Bev, and Mamaw found Papaw’s body. At the funeral, Bev is taking prescription pills.
In narration, JD explains that when Papaw died the only person who ever got Bev was gone, and she seemed further away.
At work - Bev is a nurse - Bev begins stealing medications and taking them herself. She borrows a co-worker’s rollerblades
and blades through the hospital until a doctor calls security on her and she’s fired.
At home, the news about Bev’s firing upsets JD, Lindsay, and Mamaw. This leads to a fight where Bev slaps Lindsay and
she flees to her boyfriend’s. Later, Mamaw and JD watch Terminator 2 when there is a huge commotion outside. JD runs out
and finds Bev screaming and bleeding from her wrists, having tried to kill herself. Lindsay tells her mom they all miss Papaw,
but Bev screams that it was her dad and she doesn’t understand.
In present day, JD tries to find somewhere for his mom to stay while at a cookout at Lindsay’s. Usha calls him and when she
offers to come help out so he can go to the interview, he rudely snaps at her that his mother is a drug addict she doesn’t want
to deal with that. He flashes back to visiting Bev in a rehab after her suicide attempt. She tells him when she gets out things
will be different. In the present, Lindsay and JD bring her to a new rehab, where JD has to put three thousand on separate
credit cards to check Bev in.
Bev decides to flee and not go to rehab, and she and JD get into a huge fight. He tells her she’s selfish and doesn’t care at
all, and she tells him he just wants to feel superior. He asks her if she’s trying to kill herself, and she insists she’s already
tried. He asks Lindsay why she forgives her, and Lindsay tells JD something he never knew - Bev’s childhood was worse
than theirs. Papaw used to come home drunk and beat Mamaw, and Mamaw once lit Papaw on fire. JD talks to Bev and tells
her about Usha.
In flashback, Bev surprises everyone by suddenly marrying her boss Ken. They have to move in with him and have to get rid
of the dog since Ken is allergic. JD’s new stepbrother Travis wants him to smoke pot, but JD won’t since his mother has drug
problems. Later, Bev asks JD to give her a urine sample to give to the nursing board. JD refuses, furious, and Mamaw hears
what has happened. Mamaw tells JD to do it, making JD angry, saying that Bev is the way she is because Mamaw never put
her foot down. Mamaw tells JD that family is the only thing that means a damn, and insists he do it, which he does. He asks to
live with her and she says she can’t do that to Bev.
Later, Mamaw collapses and ends up in the hospital. JD asks her if she’s going to die, and she tells him she doesn’t know.
JD begins doing poorly in school, and when some of Travis’s friends and drinking and want to go do vandalism at a former
place of work, he offers Mamaw’s car to take them there. They go and destroy the place until the police nearly catch them.
Lindsay tells Mamaw about the incident, and she remembers after Bev was nearly arrested telling her to take responsibility,
and Bev finding Mamaw just as bad.
Mamaw marches into Bev’s house, finds JD smoking weed with Travis, and tells JD he’s moving in with her. Bev says she
can’t take him, but JD says he wants to go. Bev tells them they were made for each other. Mamaw is tough on JD, wanting
him to work hard and stop hanging out with deadbeats. She wants him to do his homework, but he says he can’t without an
expensive calculator. She tells him to go get one, and he tries to steal one but is caught.
Mamaw picks him up, gets him the calculator - which he throws out the window and screams at her that he hates her. She
tells him he needs to decide if he’s going to be somebody or not. In a flashback, JD notices how Mamaw can’t afford her pills
and has to split her tiny meals on wheels meal in half to feed them both. He begins helping her out around the house, gets a
job, and begins trying very hard and doing excellent in school, which makes Mamaw emotional.
In the present, JD takes Bev to her boyfriend Ray’s, where he begins throwing her stuff out the window and calling her a junkie
whore. JD tries to break it to attack him, then stops when a horrified neighbor sees him. He asks Lindsay if Bev can stay with
her, but she says she can’t because Lindsay has children. She suggests JD bring Bev to a nearby motel and drop her off so
he can get back for his interview, which he does.
JD returns to the motel with food for Bev and finds her injecting herself with heroin. He rips it out of her hands and flushes it as
she screams. Bev cries and he helps her get to bed, and remembers flashes of many times in his life, including Mamaw’s
passing. He tells Bev he loves her and wants to help her but he can’t stay. He tells her Lindsay is on the way and tells her not
to give up. On the way back, he calls Usha and apologizes. He asks if he scared her off, and she says no, and decides to
keep talking to him so he can stay awake to make the all-night drive. He tells her all about his family, and Mamaw. Usha says
she wishes she could have met her.
The next day, JD calls Usha and says he’s close but isn’t going to make it and asks her to go down and ask the interviewer to
wait. She rushes out to do so and discovers JD is home already. JD goes to his interview, and over narration explains that
his family isn’t perfect but they gave him the chance to have more than they did. Post-script notes how JD graduated, married
Usha, had two kids, and moved to Cincinnati. Lindsay, her husband, and three kids live in Middletown. Bev works as a
housecleaner, spends time with her grandchildren, and has been sober for six years.
Related Movies:
UNCLE FATAL
FRANK AFFAIR TIGERTAIL HUSTLERS UNCORKED
JD Vance (Gabriel Basso) is about to graduate from law school and has a very important law internship interview scheduled
when he gets a call from his sister Lindsay (Haley Bennett) that his mother Bev (Amy Adams) has overdosed on heroin.
Flashbacks reveal that JD grew up extremely poor, and Bev was extremely volatile and had a drug problem, leading to JD
living with his grandmother Mamaw (Glenn Close), who taught him how he needed to make something of himself. In the
present, JD helps Bev get settled but tells her he has to leave, and returns in time to make his lawyer interview. He eventually
gets married and moves back to Ohio, where Bev has stayed sober for six years.
THANKS FOR READING HILLBILLY ELEGY THE MOVIE PLOT
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