Is the movie an Oscar contender? No, but who cares. The movie has a great message and it's fun. I enjoyed the movie from beginning to end. All you naysayers and haters, get some joy in your life and be entertained without tearing down. It's a movie for teens to learn the value of understanding who you are and living your best you. Something us 40 somethings need to be remind of too!

Is this movie very original? Not at all. It follows the common formula of such self confidence movies. But it is lovely executed and I ended up enjoying every minute of it. It is very charming and positive. Positive not just in the main message (love yourself and be who you want to be) but also in the execution and how nice the characters are. Nobody is hateful and negative to others (except for that guy in the beginning who got what he deserved). There are no nasty jury who need to be proven something, no nasty contestants trying to sabotage you, actually no mean mothers. The only person one needs to prove something to is oneself. The rest of the women and girls are very nice to each other, which is so wonderful. And this is something that was kind of special in this movie.

Actors were also great. Jennifer Aniston is great at performing a loving mother who maybe has some misunderstandings with her daughter yet wants to do the best for her. Harold Perrineau is amazing. When I saw him first I had trouble to figure out who it is even though the face looked familiar. He is a great actor who is very different in every role I saw him.

So if you want to see some very deep award receiving movie, this is probably not the one for you. But if you want an entertaining and positive movie that will make you feel good about life than this is a good choice.

Based on the novel by Julie Murphy (you can see her in a cameo near the end of the film and she's recently written a book called Puddin' that follows the story of the supporting cast of this story) and directed by Anne Fletcher (who also directed Hot Pursuit, a movie we saw as the second feature at least five times at the drive-in throughout the summer of 2015) from a script by Kristin Hahn (who in her youth lived with star Jennifer Aniston and has a production company with her),Dumplin' hits home. The story of a teenage girl trying to understand how to fit in with a world she doesn't fit into who loves Dolly Parton may seem like the exact opposite of something that would reach me, but what you don't know is that I grew up in a small town with one country station that played nearly all day long playlists of Ms. Parton. And despite my collection of black shirts and a patch ridden jacket, I've proudly stood in the front row, singing out loud to every song at Dolly shows.

Willowdean Dickson (Danielle Macdonald) was raised primarily by her Aunt Lucy while her mother Rosie (Aniston) relives her beauty queen past as a semi-celebrity in their small Texas hometown.

After the sudden death of her aunt, Willowdean has to deal with pageant season, a time of the year that she finds ridiculous. She convinces her best friend and fellow Dolly fan Ellen Dryver (Odeya Rush, Goosebumps) to enter the Miss Teen Bluebonnet Pageant as a protest. Willowdean isn't the same body shape and size as her mother, so she's fiercely against the beauty contest and willing to defend others, like shy Millie Michalchuk, who ends up coming out of her shell. Joining them in their "protest in heels" is Hannah Perez (Bex Taylor-Klaus, Hell Fest, TV's The Killing),whose short hair looks and love of metal are in sharp contrast to every other girl.

Miss Teen Bluebonnet will test Willowdean's friendship with Ellen, as well as strengthen her love of her lost aunt by meeting many of her drag queen friends, including Harold Perrineau from TV's Lost and Ru Paul's Drag Race contestant Ginger Minj. Willowdean also learns that even the cutest guy in school, Bo, might be able to see through society's views on beauty to see who she is inside.

Sure, Dumplin' is sentimental and at times schmaltzy, but it's also a well-made and at times, pretty amusing film. It was also nice to see Kathy Najimy in the film (her husband Dan Finnerty is also in the movie as beauty contest host Eugene Reed). And who doesn't love hearing a soundtrack packed with Dolly tunes, including a new one that she wrote just for the movie?