MY Mother's Thoughts on Movies

Over the years my mom and I have explored assorted shared writing projects – we started down the road of an epistolary (which is just an awesome word) novel inspired by the relationship between Anderson Cooper and his mother.  We ran out of steam, but it was fun while it lasted.  More recently my mom, who turned 89 today, has been asking about writing a blog – and could it live on my website?  I suggested a Substack, but she thought that might feel too pressured.  All of which is to say that I completely relate to this impulse (and hesitancy) and I am happy to share my modest tech platform.

For this first entry, please find my mom’s thoughts (shared with me via email) on the complete cinematographic works of Dolly Parton in honor of her passing.  Hooray for Dollywood!

8/27 9 to 5 (1980). I loved it 
Lily Tomlin, Dolly & Jane Fonda have wonderful comic chemistry.

8/28 Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) ! As bad as 9 to 5 was good. Zero chemistry between Dolly & Burt Reynolds. Totally unsexy-might as well have been about a New England clambake. No redeeming features, including Dolly. (Roger Ebert’s review is good.)

8/30 Rhinestone (1984) Not available to stream. Dolly & Sylvester Stallone. From what I’ve seen (trailer & SS singing Stay Out of My Bedroom), I’d prefer it to Whorehouse. Dolly & SS work better and her character is more appealing.

8/31 Steel Magnolias (1989). Well, it didn’t jerk any tears. I enjoyed the women’s jokes and Dolly was lovely, surprisingly thin. No singing, what a waste. Don’t recommend. Can it be that hard to write dialogue for men?
(Vincent Canby’s NYTimes review is good.)

9/1/26 Straight Talk (1992) It could have been fun if they’d cast a sexy male lead and taken her seriously as a comedian. Who thought casting James Wood as her love interest was a good idea? I’ve stopped midway to check plot summary: it’s either going to get really mean or turn into an unconvincing romance. Neither is appealing.
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Later on 9/1/26  I’m happy to report that I was wrong about Straight Talk. Chemistry & movie got steadily better, Dolly was perfect. It was a B movie but that’s okay. It wasn’t half bad.
Just because I’m more interested in Dolly as a movie star than a super country singer doesn’t mean she was.

9/3/26 That’s it. I couldn’t watch A Joyful Noise-I tried, but didn’t find it interesting. It was filmed in 2021 and Dolly had had work done. “I am who I am,” she says and Queen Latifah’s ViRose replies, “Maybe you were five procedures ago” (Rebecca Nicholson, Guardian, June 1, 2021). I think that was part of my problem. You were definitely right - she did grow old.

I’ve concluded that Dolly basically plays some variation of herself in all her movies. That explains why Whorehouse is so bad: there’s no way Dolly would be a Madam. She plays the character as a particularly energetic leader of scantily clad, superannuated Girl Scouts. They are occasionally visited by a troop of fully clothed but equally superannuated Boy Scouts. They sing & dance together, not clear why. Dolly scolds & encourages. Why?

I liked 9 to 5, Dolly’s first movie, the best.
I enjoyed watching Steel Magnolias’ great cast—Dolly, Olympia Dukakis, Shirley McLean & Sally Field—interact but that was about it. As I said, no tears were jerked. And Straight Talk was the perfectly acceptable grade B movie it set out to be. Dolly played Shirlee, a radio talk show “doctor” who gave advice to the troubled.
She was as good at that as she was being a secretary in 9 to 5 and Truvy of Truvy’s Beauty Salon in Steel Magnolias.

Goodbye, Dolly.
 

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