''Rich Hill'' is a 2014 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

co-produced and directed by

Andrew Droz Palermo Andrew Droz Palermo is an American cinematographer, director, and screenwriter. He is known for his work on '' The Green Knight'' (2021), ''A Ghost Story'' (2017), '' You're Next'' (2011), '' A Teacher'' (2013), and for directing '' Rich Hill'' ...

and Tracy Droz Tragos about

Rich Hill, Missouri Rich Hill is a city in southern Bates County, Missouri, and is part of the Kansas City metropolitan area within the United States. The population was 1,232 at the 2020 census. History Rich Hill was platted in 1880. The city was named in 1871 by ...

. The film premiered at the

2014 Sundance Film Festival The 2014 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 16, 2014 until January 26, 2014 in Park City, Utah, United States, with screenings in Salt Lake City, Ogden, and Sundance Resort in Utah. The festival opened with ''Whiplash'' directed by Da ...

, where it won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize for a documentary. After its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, The Orchard and Independent Lens acquired distribution rights to the film. Independent Lens broadcast the film nationally on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

, while The Orchard distributed the film in the U.S. and Canada outside of linear broadcast. The film was released on August 1, 2014, in the United States.

Synopsis

The film chronicles challenges, hopes, and dreams of three young residents — Andrew, Harley, and Appachey — of a rural American town. Andrew's father has moved the family multiple times and his mother may suffer from

agoraphobia Agoraphobia is a mental and behavioral disorder, specifically an anxiety disorder characterized by symptoms of anxiety in situations where the person perceives their environment to be unsafe with no easy way to escape. These situations can in ...

. Harley lives with his grandmother in a trailer because his mother is in prison. Appachey was abandoned by his father at age 6 and lives with his mother and siblings. He chooses not to take medication for a number of conditions, including bipolar disorder, ADD, OCD, and ODD.

Reception

The film received positive response from critics. Review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reports that 84% of 45 film critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 8 out of 10. The site's summary states: "As compassionate as it is infuriating, Rich Hill offers a sobering glimpse of American poverty." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a

weighted mean The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

rating out of 100 reviews from film critics, the film holds an average score of '75', based on 20 reviews, indicating a 'Generally Favorable' response. Peter Debruge in his review for ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called it "An open-hearted portrait of impoverished American life." ''Duane Byrge'' of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' gave the film a positive review and called it "A hard-eyed but empathetic glimpse into the hardscrabble lives of struggling Missouri folk." ''Katie Walsh'' from

Indiewire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...

in her review said: "A truly moving and edifying film, Rich Hill is the type of media object that could and should be put in a time capsule for future generations."''Dan Schindel'' in his review for ''Movie Mezzanine'' said "

t is T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is deri ...

A wonderful look at pubescent melancholy and rural living."

Accolades

References

External links

Official website
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rich Hill 2014 films 2014 documentary films American documentary films Sundance Film Festival award winners Films shot in Missouri The Orchard (company) films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language documentary films