Dumplin’ Review (2018) – A charming coming of age story about acceptance, beauty pageants, and drag queens!
We are wrapping up this month with another Netflix movie! This movie fits well with our theme and is just a wonderful story, the movie is “Dumplin’”. We could not be happier when we first discovered this film to see a wonderfully written story with such a diverse cast of people!
We are going to pop in a little trigger warning here: This film is wonderful, fun and sweet, but it also deals with fat phobia, bullying, beauty pageants and grief. We personally feel that beauty pageants do more harm than they do good but we still really enjoy this film. (We do not hate beauty pageants...we just feel that our society is way too fixated on physical appearance).
We will do everything we can to not give too many spoilers in this review but there are likely to be some, so please take that into consideration and read cautiously.
The opening shot of the film is of a car driving down a paved road around midafternoon with Dolly Parton singing in the background. We then get a shot of a cute little girl with long curly blond hair moving with the wind as she gazes out of the vehicle window.
We hear a voice over by our main character, Willowdean (Danielle Macdonald) talking about her Aunt Lucy (Hilliary Begley). The beginning of the film is focused on Willowdean as a child, and her relationship with her Aunt Lucy. Lucy was more of a mother figure to Willowdean. She was an incredibly fun, kind, lovely, and wise woman that had a huge impact on Willowdean’s life including, but not limited to, introducing her to Dolly Parton’s music and her best friend Elle (Odeya Rush).
We fade to teenage Willowdean and teenage Elle singing Dolly Parton in the car together. We fade from there to a shot of Lucy living it up in a swimsuit by the pool with a voice over from Willowdean. “Sometimes I think my Aunt Lucy gave me Dolly and Elle to get through the one thing she couldn’t teach me herself: how to live in this world without her.”
We fade to Willowdean and Elle floating and relaxing at the public pool together. A rude pool goer does a cannonball into the pool and splashes them while yelling, “WHALE WATCH!”
Le sigh. Willowdean is a larger individual, so of course she must be shamed for it…we hate this shit. But we recognize that this is, unfortunately, a common occurrence if one looks, in any way, different from the societal “norm.”
Normal is subjective, and it blows our minds that for some reason it has been normalized to think that everyone is supposed to look the same. No, we are not, and the world would be a damn boring place if we did!
Willowdean brushes off the rudeness far better than we could! She relaxes into her floatation device and reminisces with Elle about Lucy. There are a lot of “Lucyisms” throughout the movie and we have to say, Lucy did give some damn good advice!
Willowdean and Elle segue into the topic of Willowdeans biological mother, who is apparently involved in beauty pageants because she is an ex-beauty queen. Pageant season means that Willowdean’s mom has to diet aggressively so she can fit into a specific dress.
Willowdean pokes some fun at her mom, and as she does so, the same obnoxious person from before cannonballs into the pool again and shouts “WHALE!”
This time Willowdean is not the target but another girl who is actually sitting on a lounge chair outside of the pool. The cannonball was not successful in getting her wet, so he proceeds to splash water on her which makes her gasp.
Willowdean watches this in disgust and watches on while the girl takes a moment to process what just happened and starts laughing! Willowdean looks over at Elle with a pained expression on her face. “I have to confess something or I think I might go straight to hell. Whenever I see Millie Mitchellchuck, I think, ‘I’m fat but at least I’m not clueless.’”
We cut back to Millie (Maddie Baillio), on her lounge chair laughing and giggling. Elle comments, “She always seems happy.” Willowdean agrees but her expression is doubtful.
We do find that Millie does tend to use toxic positivity to help her cope and while this is definitely a problem…she is also a genuinely upbeat and energetic individual.
Next we see Elle and Willowdean leaving the pool with some shaved ice where they are happened upon by a coworker of Elle’s named Callie (Georgie Flores). Callie is going to be part of the pageant this year!
Elle informs her that Willowdeans mom is the pageant director, Rosie Dickson (Jennifer Aniston)! Callie is shocked by this, looking over at Willowdean, “Rosie Dickson’s your mom? Really?”
Willowdean confirms this, but she is a bit annoyed and makes it known mildly. It is clear that Willowdean does not much care for beauty pageants and does not love that her mom is so deeply involved in them.
They all three laugh awkwardly together for a moment until Callie leaves. Willowdean and Elle walk back to their cars and sing some more Dolly. Willowdean, having changed clothes at the pool pulls up to a fast food style diner called Harpy’s.
We see her walk up to what appears to be either the side of the building or the back and push a buzzer next to a large heavy duty door. A bit annoyed she pushes the buzzer again. Sighing she pushes it again.
The door bursts open and we see a teenage boy around Willowdeans age in a white Harpy’s shirt with a lollypop sticking out of his mouth. “I heard you the first three times!” He looks at Willowdean and gives her a crooked smile. “Willowdean.”
She responds with a simple, “Hi, Bo,” as she enters the building by ducking under his arm. Willowdean quickly changes into her work uniform, and gets to work! She is nimble on her feet, and a quick thinker.
She and Bo (Luke Benward), have some chemistry between them, but at this time Willowdean is overlooking it. She finishes her work day and goes home. We think they’d be a cute couple!
When we get home we meet Willowdeans mom! Rosie Dickson herself! “Dumplin’!” Rosie calls out. “Dumplin’!” Irritated Willowdean goes to the doorway of her mom’s room, “Mom! That name.” Willowdean hates being called dumplin’ but it is her mom’s favorite pet name for her.
Willowdean hangs in the doorway with Rosie sat in front of her mirror in her satin robe, hair spraying her hair into submission. She has a pageant event to go to and Willowdean has to drive her! Willowdean is not dressed properly to take her! Willowdean is exasperated but used to it. Willowdean has plans with Elle, but complies with her mom’s wishes.
Elle and Willowdean drive Rosie to a large building with a full parking lot. What is kind of funny is you cannot see Rosie…that is until Willowdean gets out of the car and opens the back side door. Rosie almost falls out of the car because she was laying down across the backseat!
Why might you ask? Well, it is because the dress she is wearing is too long and too tight for her to be able to sit properly in it! Elle opens the other door and they are able to shimmy Willowdeans mom out of the vehicle.
Watching her shimmy out of the car is a silly moment that we have to admit we giggled at.
They walk Rosie inside where we find a beauty pageant going on. Apparently Rosie is there to get on stage with the girls and call out the winners. The woman who normally does this for this pageant, Miss Teen Sweetwater, greets her backstage.
The interaction between the two of them is as amusing as it is painful. The poor woman is pained that she is being replaced today, and they exchange some mildly catty banter about the pageant.
Miss Sweetwater turns to the girls and assumes that Ellen is Rosie’s daughter. Elle has a more stereotypical pageant look to her but it is still an odd assumption because she really does not share the same coloring or physical features with Rosie.
She is just thin, or “straight sized.” Because of this…it is assumed that she must be Rosie’s daughter. Rosie, without missing a beat, corrects the situation and introduces Willowdean as her daughter.
We appreciated that Rosie not only introduces Willowdean, but that she has no hesitation or any weirdness about it. It is clear that while Rosie and Willowdean have their differences and struggles that Rosie loves her daughter.
Sweetwater just brushes her mistake aside and Rosie walks out onto the stage where she reads out the winners name and gives her a hug.
We cut back to backstage where Willowdean is watching this and getting a little overwhelmed. Willowdean wants her mom to see her, take care of her, and treat her the way she treats all of these other girls.
We understand this, it is painful to watch a parent treat other people and other children far better than they treat their own.
We cut back to Harpy’s where Willowdean finds a magic 8 ball…it was left in her work locker. It does not take her long to figure out who gave it to her.
She nervously thanks Bo for the magic 8 ball, and they share a cute little moment together before going back to work.
Bo likes Willowdean and Willowdean likes Bo…but Willowdean struggles with how she views herself and writes off their chemistry. She is convinced that boys like Bo would not be interested in “girls like her.”
We completely understand why she struggles with this, and we validate and hold space for that. But we would also argue that this is not for her to decide. Bo gets to decide for himself who he likes and who he doesn’t. Just like she does. But we digress!
We cut to her at home finding Rosie going through Lucy’s things and boxing them up for donation. Willowdean is alarmed and upset by this. She does not feel that enough time has passed but Rosie is in cleaning mode and not hearing Willowdean.
Distraught Willowdean grabs some of the boxes and takes them to her room. She wants to go through Lucy’s things herself. Here is where we are going to jump ahead a little bit.
Jumping ahead a few scenes we see Rosie and Willowdean getting into an argument at the front of the school. Rosie has to pick Willowdean up because her car is in the shop, but also because Willowdean kneed an awful bullying boy in the privates.
Upset, Rosie questions this, and it turns into a much larger argument than she bargained for. They get to arguing about the nickname dumplin’ and Lucy, which is extremely painful for them both.
Angry, frustrated, and hurt Willowdean decides to walk home. Once she gets home she starts going through the boxes in Lucy’s room. Where she finds a pageant signup sheet…signed by Lucy! Lucy was going to enter the same pageant that Rosie signed up for and won all those years ago!
Bitter and angry with Rosie, this gives Willowdean an idea…she should sign up for the pageant! She should try to do what Lucy couldn’t. She is going to march in there on sign up day just to see the look on her mom’s face!
She tells Elle about her plan, and Elle decides to join her. Together they are going to take on the pageant!
To wrap things up here a bit, Millie and Hannah, (Bex Taylor-Klaus) sign up for the pageant as well! Hannah is someone we met for a very brief moment earlier in the film. Not only was the moment incredibly brief but we also do not learn her name at that time!
We get to know Hannah, and actually meet her as she is signing up for the pageant and participating in it. We get to know Millie more as well! They are both fun and quirky people that help round out the team!
Everyone has now entered the pageant…but now what? Willowdean does not have a solid plan at all! As the film progresses we get to our favorite part and see Willowdean meet more wonderful and fabulous people that help her on her journey. We watch Willowdean learn how to accept help from others, accept herself, allow herself to grieve and embrace differences in others.
Watching Willowdean work to heal herself, and heal her relationship with her mom is incredibly touching while at the same time steeped with fun and humor. Willowdean’s story is well-written and very well acted! We love the representation in this film and hope that we get many more films like this.
Our biggest complaint is that Odeya Rush (Elle), seems to struggle a bit throughout the film to maintain her Texan accent, but since we are terrible at accents, we can’t really cast stones! It is just something we notice every time we watch this movie. It is a small matter to us and does not greatly affect how we feel about her acting or the movie as a whole.
If you are someone who appreciates lighthearted humor, coming of age stories and drag queens! (We do!) Then you will love this movie and should definitely give it a watch!
We adore this movie and we highly recommend it!
We give it… 4 spiked Chocolate milkshakes out of 5!
Dumplin' Drinking Game
Take a sip anytime:
1. Dolly Parton song plays
2. Anyone says "Dumplin'"
3. Anyone says "Willowdean"
4. Aunt Lucy is mentioned
5. Anyone quotes Aunt Lucy
6. Millie Mitchellchuck giggles
7. Anyone quotes Dolly Parton
8. Anyone says pageant
9. Anyone says beauty queen
10. Anyone looks in a mirror
11. Bo flirts with Will
12. Anyone mentions the revolt or revolution
13. Willowdean gets mad at her mom
14. Rosie talks about being Miss Teen Blue Bonnet or her pageant days
15. Anyone says Miss Teen Blue Bonnet
16. Hannah makes fun of or mocks the pageant
17. Hannah is brutally honest
18. Rosie says tradition
19. Gorgeous drag queen on screen
What did you think?? Did you like the movie? Did you hate it!? Do you have suggestions for films we should consider?! Let us know here in the comments and always remember to be safe and drink responsibly!