i read a lot of people saying that they made a more or less fool out of everyone here, that the jobs are good if you just look, that we don't try for ourselves. like it or not this film is correct in 95% of what it said, and as far as us not trying. you come here and live and see how far you get when we take all you have away from you. you wouldn't last. its well worth watching and in spite of what others say, it is correct in the information it gives. i don't know why people are saying its not the way this place is, maybe they don't want to admit it. i invite anyone to come here for a week, or even a weekend... see for your self. i would tell anyone who wants to know what this place is like but don't want to visit or don't have the time/money to visit, rent or buy this doc. well worth the money.

Honestly, I don't know why anyone would consider this movie to be a documentary. Then again, I suppose that calling it such is just a convinient way to catalogue it as opposed to quibbling over it being a mockumentary instead.The movie mentions Hazard as being the closest town. Congratulations, that's where I've grown up. Believe it or not, there is actually an amount of economic prosperity there that people wouldn't believe. Why do I say that? Because Rory Kennedy goes to great lengths to make very sure that it is never seen and depict Eastern Kentucky as a Twilight Zone holdover from the 1890's, only with newer vehicles.In a movie meant to showcase the determination and the ability of a family to survive in extreme economic hardship, I simply wonder how hard Ms. Kennedy had to work to make sure that this was the most blatantly discriminatory piece of work that she could come up with. Granted, you had people that didn't work, but moving wasn't exactly an option. To give up a home that you have, in a place that you know to move somewhere but not have the funds to establish a home is always a good move, is it not? The accusations thrown around about Clint have also been amusing since Paris Hilton has proved to be far worse than Clint ever thought about being. I'd also like to point out that the locale was terribly convinient. The difficulty in getting jobs into Eastern Kentucky is due to these wonderful stereotypes and the fact that this film could have been done in ANY state in the nation doesn't deter anyone for an instant.I honestly, in good faith, cannot recommend this film. It is a textbook case of making sure that the footage fits what you want to depict. I do not care what Rory Kennedy has to say, this film is nothing more than a series of strung together scenes meant to make a family struggling to get by into another, stereotype-perpetuating joke. God save us from another elitist moviemaker.

If Rory Kennedy meant her documentary, "American Hollow," to show us a poor Southern rural white family as something more respectable than the disparaging hillbilly stereotype, she failed.Not only were those familiar stereotypes not dispelled in this film, they were played out before us.The film offers us snaggletoothed, alcoholic louts given to ridiculing their wives and kids. We see amazingly good-humored, unprotesting womenfolk who do all the work of keeping the family together and fed, with little help from the men.The chronically unemployed men in the Bowling family simply won't leave to find work and a better life outside the hollow in their part of Kentucky where there are few job prospects.Worse, they actively encourage failure in the "young'uns" as well.I suspect we're supposed to believe that the Bowlings are nevertheless noble because they have deep roots on the land they've been unemployed, impoverished, and uneducated on for generations. My grandparents came across the Atlantic to America because they couldn't make a living in the old country. I think that's far more courageous (and American) than staying in a lousy situation with no hope.Poor rural black folks have to contend with racial discrimination when they go to the city for job opportunities. By contrast, the Bowling men, most of them blond, wouldn't have that hurdle to jump. But no, they stay resolutely mired in their hollow.I'm a pretty soft-hearted person, but I lost my respect for the Bowling men in the first ten minutes of the film.However, even if most of the subjects of this documentary aren't appealing, the film itself is well-made. I did learn one thing from "American Hollow" -- that love-sick teenage boys and the sweet young things who lead them on are the same the world over.

This was the funniest damn thing I have ever seen. Especially the scenes where "Clint" was arguing with his mother, and blurted out the classic line "..NO Mommy! I'm trying to talk to you man to Mommy!" Also when Clint ripped the leg off of his blue jeans had me in tears.The best scene was Clint breaking up with his girlfriend, scene cuts to Clint punching a large hole in what looked like the family outhouse.Things to note in the movie: The grandmother : Check out the size of this womans arms when shes dragging one of the kids out of the kitchen. Arnold Schwarzeneggar would feel small.See if you can count the number of teeth in this movie. I counted 15, and 12 of them belonged to 16 year old Clint.Jim Carrey..watch out..Clint the Hillbilly is on the loose, and this bad check is gonna stick.