Growing up Opie, the closest Ron Howard came to an addictive personality was town drunk Otis Campbell. Considering the amount of time Howard spent in Mayberry — and with almost three-dozen benignant features to his credit — one would be wrong to expect more spit and less polish in this tale of the yokel who went to Yale. At its best, The Andy Griffith Show tackled issues with warmth, humor, and a kind of down-home logic that drew tourists to the fictional North Carolina utopia. Opie on the opioid crisis can lead only to good acting that’s made even better when two actresses, with a combined 13 Oscar® nominations, go head-to-head as a mismatched set of backcountry mother/daughter gladiators. Once upon a time, daughter Bev (Amy Adams) was a nurse; an addiction that began by pocketing pills from patients’ plastic medicine cups soon landed her on the unemployment line. Mamaw (Glenn Close) once set fire to a man for drinking. (Close plays Mamaw as a German expressionist painting of Mrs. Doubtfire come to life.) Gussied-up in their Walmart best, the two vie for the love of son, grandson, and author J.D. Vance (played at various stages of his life by Owen Asztalos and Richie Cunningham clone Gabriel Basso). Vance used his best-selling memoir as the basis for his screenplay. Told in flashback, we observe J.D. as he grapples with a choice between leaving town for what could be a life-changing job interview or hanging around Kentucky to look after a mother fresh off a heroin overdose. This isn’t an elegy as much as it is a condescending yet well intentioned “just say no” public service announcement. Listen carefully to hear a deafening awards buzz. (2020) — Scott Marks
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