Dumplin’ is one of the latest original movies to hit Netflix. I watched it this weekend, and here are just five of the reasons I love it. 

Note: all spoilers are thematic. No actual plot points revealed. 

1.  It centers around the wisdom of Dolly Parton…and its soundtrack is chock full of her music.  Dolly and I practice the same kind of Christianity–one that leans hard on faith and loving people (including yourself). 
2. When one of the characters is told something is a bad idea, her reply is, “All my favorite things start off as bad ideas.” Truth. So many awesome things have been done or achieved that started off as bad ideas. 
3. There are drag queens. Nobody teaches you how to celebrate you or, as Dolly would say, “decide who you are and be it on purpose” like a drag queen can. We can all learn a lot from drag queens–beyond some fabulous makeup tips. 
4. There is loss and grief. I’m weird. I love a good dealing-with-grief theme, as I think we, as a society, do a pretty lousy job handling grief. We need examples. We need to see that other people experience the same things we do when someone we love dies. 
5. It passes the Bechdel test–there are two women characters who talk to each other about something other than a man.  Actually, this happens more than once. 

Bonus (slight spoiler): there is reconciliation. Redemption and reconciliation are my favorite themes in a story, and there is more than one story of the latter in this movie. 

It’s definitely worth a watch. 

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