Parents' Guide to

Rich Hill

By S. Jhoanna Robledo, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 14+

Gut-wrenching docu about children living in poverty.

Movie NR 2014 93 minutes
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Is It Any Good?

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Quietly powerful and deeply affecting, Rich Hill lets three boys bear witness to their difficult lives as they slowly open up and reveal the daily battle of their lives. Director Tracy Droz Tragos goes for the straightforward approach, allowing the boys to tell their own stories and eschewing overbearing narration or fancy data points. What we see is what we get, and what we get is a punch to the gut by reality.

It's sometimes difficult to sit through; prepare for heartache as people struggle to get through each day and find out how little is under their control. Just when you think one of them might catch a break, when something seems to be going right, everything takes a turn for the worse. We see Andrew's impressively upbeat attitude fade, while Appachey's not-always-under-control hostility threatens to hurt him. And Harley, the oldest of the group, gradually reveals the horrific event that broke his family, one from which it's unclear whether he'll ever recover. Rich Hill may be hard to watch, but it's important to do so.

Movie Details

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