‘Dumplin” review — Beauty pageants, self-love, and drag queens

Dumplin’ is the cinematic equivalent of comfort food. It’s warm, filling, satisfying, and exactly what you’d expect, but that’s why it works.

Dumplin’ fills a feel-good movie shaped void in 2018. And while it doesn’t completely subvert the formula it applies it incredibly well to this touching coming-of-age story of self-love directed by Anne Fletcher—best known for directing the 2009 romantic-comedy The Proposal.

Based on the Julie Murphy novel of the same name, Dumplin’ follows Willowdean “Will” Dickson (Danielle MacDonald), the daughter of 1991 Miss Teen Bluebonnet and current director of the pageant Rosie  Dickson (Jennifer Aniston), as she navigates life in her mother’s shadow.

While her mom is a mini-celebrity in their small Texas town, people are shocked to find that the overweight and unglamorous Will is Rosie’s daughter. However, Will finds strength from her late aunt Lucy—she instilled confidence in Will through their shared love of Dolly Parton (her music is a big reason why the movie works)—and her best friend Ellen (Lady Bird’s Odeya Rush—quite good here).

After being suspended for defending a fellow overweight girl named Millie (Maddie Baillio), Will decides to sign-up for the Miss Teen Bluebonnet Pageant as both an act of defiance against her mom who was absent from her upbringing and in support of her aunt Lucy, who wanted to try out when she was 16 but didn’t.

The first act is the kind of breezy setup that makes these kinds of movies so enjoyable to watch. Every character is carefully etched from the aloof Rosie and the enthusiastic Millie to the edgy feminist Hannah (Bex Taylor-Klaus)—she also joins the pageant in protest—to the steadfast Will.

However, it also diverts from the formula a bit. Will’s romantic storyline with her love interest Bo (Luke Benward) reaches a climactic point early on in the movie as does her relationship with Ellen. Plus, the movie focuses primarily on the dynamics between Rosie and Will—who is called Dumplin’ by her mother much to her dismay—and Will’s inner struggle towards self-love.

It’s fitting that a lot of the growth in the character of Will comes from her interactions with a group of drag queens—Rhea Ranged (Harold Perrineau) and RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Ginger Minj—since so much about the art form comes from self-love.

However, the second act of the film meanders a bit and the final act, while completely uplifting and satisfying—reverts to the formula that we know. But that’s okay.

Dumplin’ is cinematic comfort food. It’s warm, filling, satisfying, and exactly what you expect. Here and there it surprises you—particuarly the strong performances from Aniston and Macdonald, who is having a great year between this and Bird Box—but overall it works because you know the story and can call its shots.

Netflix is becoming a powerhouse in these types of movies. Just this year they had To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and Set it Up as examples of entertaining crowd-pleasing fare. Dumplin’ is yet another sequenced and southern fried feather in its cap.

Dumplin’ is now streaming on Netflix.