“I’m not the Dalai Lama, but I’ll try to offer up a few words of advice,” Dolly Parton chirped in her 2008 single “Better Get to Livin’,” before doling out exactly the brand of wholesome, no-nonsense wisdom you’d expect from the indefatigable country queen: If you keep your head up, keep moving forward and say the odd little prayer, life will more or less work out fine.
It’s no surprise that “Better Get to Livin'” features prominently in “Dumplin’,” a film as big on homespun heart as it is short on the letter ‘G,’ and one that certainly places Dolly and Dalai on more or less the same spiritual plane. The singer may not star in Anne Fletcher’s lovable self-help comedy — about a plus-size, Parton-worshipping teen who shakes up her small Texan community by entering a local beauty pageant — but from her integral narrative presence to...
It’s no surprise that “Better Get to Livin'” features prominently in “Dumplin’,” a film as big on homespun heart as it is short on the letter ‘G,’ and one that certainly places Dolly and Dalai on more or less the same spiritual plane. The singer may not star in Anne Fletcher’s lovable self-help comedy — about a plus-size, Parton-worshipping teen who shakes up her small Texan community by entering a local beauty pageant — but from her integral narrative presence to...
- 12/13/2018
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
In Netflix's latest hit comedy Dumplin', one of the most significant characters barely even appears onscreen and doesn't appear at all in the story's present day. We're talking, of course, about Aunt Lucy, mentor and beloved aunt to the heroine Willowdean. Lucy is the one who takes care of Willowdean as a child and who inspires her to enter a beauty pageant in the first place. But, in the present day of the movie, Aunt Lucy has been dead for six months. It's a role with little screentime, but a big impact on the plot. If you don't recognize the actress playing Lucy, there's a good reason for that.
Dumplin' is the screen debut of actress Hilliary Begley - no relation to Ed Begley Jr., beloved American actor. She previously had a comedy career, but is now moving into acting. She recently wrapped her second film as well: When We Last Spoke,...
Dumplin' is the screen debut of actress Hilliary Begley - no relation to Ed Begley Jr., beloved American actor. She previously had a comedy career, but is now moving into acting. She recently wrapped her second film as well: When We Last Spoke,...
- 12/12/2018
- by Amanda Prahl
- Popsugar.com
Actress Danielle Macdonald truly experienced what her character was going through when modeling swimsuits in a beauty pageant for Netflix's Dumplin'.
The dramedy, released Friday and adapted from the Julie Murphy novel of the same name, centers on Willowdean Dickson (Macdonald), a Texas high schooler who is too insecure about her body to enter the town beauty pageant that her obsessed mother (Jennifer Aniston) oversees every year. Inspired by her late, beloved aunt (Hilliary Begley), a trio of local drag queens and her idol Dolly Parton — who contributed the original song "Girl in the Movies" that scored ...
The dramedy, released Friday and adapted from the Julie Murphy novel of the same name, centers on Willowdean Dickson (Macdonald), a Texas high schooler who is too insecure about her body to enter the town beauty pageant that her obsessed mother (Jennifer Aniston) oversees every year. Inspired by her late, beloved aunt (Hilliary Begley), a trio of local drag queens and her idol Dolly Parton — who contributed the original song "Girl in the Movies" that scored ...
- 12/10/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Actress Danielle Macdonald truly experienced what her character was going through when modeling swimsuits in a beauty pageant for Netflix's Dumplin'.
The dramedy, released Friday and adapted from the Julie Murphy novel of the same name, centers on Willowdean Dickson (Macdonald), a Texas high schooler who is too insecure about her body to enter the town beauty pageant that her obsessed mother (Jennifer Aniston) oversees every year. Inspired by her late, beloved aunt (Hilliary Begley), a trio of local drag queens and her idol Dolly Parton — who contributed the original song "Girl in the Movies" that scored ...
The dramedy, released Friday and adapted from the Julie Murphy novel of the same name, centers on Willowdean Dickson (Macdonald), a Texas high schooler who is too insecure about her body to enter the town beauty pageant that her obsessed mother (Jennifer Aniston) oversees every year. Inspired by her late, beloved aunt (Hilliary Begley), a trio of local drag queens and her idol Dolly Parton — who contributed the original song "Girl in the Movies" that scored ...
- 12/10/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Australian actress Danielle Macdonald first caught the attention of Hollywood with a star-making turn in Geremy Jasper’s 2017 Sundance hit “Patti Cake$,” which cast her as an unlikely heroine saddled with a baked good-based nickname yearning to break free from expectation and convention by using her unexpected skills in rap to shine. She’s trying something similar in Anne Fletcher’s “Dumplin,'” in which she is set as an unlikely heroine saddled with a baked good-based nickname yearning to break free from expectation and convention by using her unexpected skills in beauty pageants to shine. And yet Fletcher’s Netflix film offers a new glimpse at Macdonald’s evolving talent, allowing her to blend Ya convention with genuine heart in the mother-daughter dramedy.
Based on Julie Murphy’s Ya novel of the same name and adapted by screenwriter Kristin Hahn, “Dumplin'” follows some familiar beats, focusing on the fraught...
Based on Julie Murphy’s Ya novel of the same name and adapted by screenwriter Kristin Hahn, “Dumplin'” follows some familiar beats, focusing on the fraught...
- 12/7/2018
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Dumplin' doesn't nail its mother-daughter drama, but delights with its Dolly Parton-fueled story of female friendship & self-acceptance.
Dumplin', Netflix's feature film adaptation of Julie Murphy's bestselling book, shows its adaptation strings in its tale of the smalltown beauty pageant wedged between a mother and daughter, but soars in its depiction of adolescent girl friendship.
Dumplin' is the story of a clever, self-aware Texan teenaged girl named Willowdeen (Danielle Macdonald). Struggling to connect with herself and her beauty pageant-obsessed mother, Rosie (Jennifer Aniston), in the wake of her Aunt Lucy's (Hilliary Begley) death, Will enters the Clover County Miss Teen Bluebonnet competition as a form of angry protest against the fat-shaming culture she and her Aunt Lucy have had to endure for their entire lives.
Directed by Anne Fletcher from a script by Kristin Hahn, Dumplin' mostly refuses to fall into "tragic fat girl" tropes, which is one of the film's greatest strengths.
Dumplin', Netflix's feature film adaptation of Julie Murphy's bestselling book, shows its adaptation strings in its tale of the smalltown beauty pageant wedged between a mother and daughter, but soars in its depiction of adolescent girl friendship.
Dumplin' is the story of a clever, self-aware Texan teenaged girl named Willowdeen (Danielle Macdonald). Struggling to connect with herself and her beauty pageant-obsessed mother, Rosie (Jennifer Aniston), in the wake of her Aunt Lucy's (Hilliary Begley) death, Will enters the Clover County Miss Teen Bluebonnet competition as a form of angry protest against the fat-shaming culture she and her Aunt Lucy have had to endure for their entire lives.
Directed by Anne Fletcher from a script by Kristin Hahn, Dumplin' mostly refuses to fall into "tragic fat girl" tropes, which is one of the film's greatest strengths.
- 12/6/2018
- Den of Geek
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