It’s hard to put into exact words, but Hillbilly Elegy makes me wonder if Ron Howard is okay? The Oscar winning director for hits such as Parenthood, Willow, A Beautiful Mind, and many others, has made by far one of the worst films of his career in Hillbilly Elegy. Based on J.D. Vance’s 2016 book of the same name, Elegy tells Vance’s family story, growing up in Middletown, Ohio, long after his grandparents moved from the east Kentucky hills, and his struggle to crawl out of his volatile, country folk lifestyle upbringing, to earning his Yale Law School degree on his own volition. Viewed at the time as a book that spoke for the misunderstood Trump voter, the movie seems to absolve anyone in the backwoods for their “misguided views” and cyclical toxic behavior, while doing everything it can to get Amy Adams and Glenn Close to their much seeked Oscars. Even if Hillbilly Elegy succeeds at evoking empathy from viewers about the forgotten American, it falls well short of being genuine in its portrayal of actual human beings. Without the intention, Hillbilly Elegy is the most laughable movie of 2020.