Coal Miner’s Daughter – The Movie Gourmet

Sylvie Mix and Bobbi Kitten in POSER, playing at the Nashville Film Festival, Photo courtesy of the Nashville Film Festival.

I’m in Music City for the Nashville Film Festival, which is both an in-person and on-line event. Check out my coverage so far:

IN THEATERS

Without Getting Killed or Caught: This lyrical documentary traces the lives of singer-songwriter Guy Clark and his painter-songwriter wife Susanna. Their roommate was troubled songwriter Townes Van Zandt, Guy’s best friend and Susanna’s soulmate. This is a film about an unusual web of relationships amidst the creative process. It’s already slipped out of Bay Area theaters, but I’ll let you know when it streams.

Also in theaters:

The Eyes of Tammy Faye: some dignity for the clown.
The Card Counter: a loner, his code and his past.
Best Sellers: orneriness goes viral.
Respect: struggling to take command of her own artistry
The Lost Leonardo: is it a hustle? Does it matter? SEE THIS NOW – probably not long for theaters.

ON VIDEO

Wildland: A teenage girl is orphaned and is placed with relatives that she doesn’t really know. She gradually learns that the family, headed by her mom’s estranged sister is a ruthless criminal enterprise. Wildland simmers and evolves into a nail biter right up to its noir-stained epilogue. Laemmle.

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

The Unknown Saint: a shrine to really bad luck. Netflix.
CODA: a thought-provoking audience-pleaser. AppleTV.
Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal and Greed: Improbability squared. Netflix.
Searching for Mr. Rugoff: the best movie taste of any barbarian. Laemmle.
Curiosa: erotic, but do we care? Laemmle.
Riders of Justice: Thriller, comedy and much, much more. It’s the year’s best movie so far. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube. #1 on my Best Movies of 2021 – So Far
Dirt Music: a gorgeous bodice-ripper with a WTF ending. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
Kansas City Bomber: self-discovery at the roller derby track. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube.
No Sudden Move: Steven Soderbergh’s neo-noir thriller has even more double-crosses than movie stars – and it has plenty of movie stars. HBO Max.
The Neutral Ground: the supremacist legacy of old statues. PBS.
Mama Weed: it’s always fun when Huppert gets outrageous. Laemmle.
Summertime: no longer invisible and unheard, giving voice through verse. Laemmle.
What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael: the drive for relevance. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube.
Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation: Two gay Southern geniuses, revealing themselves. Laemmle.
The Dry: a mystery as psychological as it is procedural. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.

ON TV

Levon Helm at left and Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner’s Daughter

Turner Classic Movies is aligned with my trip to Nashville, the Ground Zero of Country music. On October 4, TCM airs Coal Miner’s Daughter, one of my 5 Great Hillbilly Movies. Sissy Spacek won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Loretta Lynn in this successful biopic. In an early major role, Tommy Lee Jones plays Loretta’s husband Mooney. Levon Helm, the Arkansas-bred drummer for The Band has one of his rare but compelling film roles as Loretta’s Daddy. Besides the performances, the movie works because Loretta must grow from nobody to star, girl to woman and hick to worldly.

Coal Miner’s Daughter was one of the big Hollywood movies directed by Michael Apted, whose 7 Up series is one of the most significant documentary series in cinema history.

Winter’s Bone inspired me to think of other great movies set in a hillbilly milieu. If there is a Hillbilly Genre, these movies don’t fit because they aren’t about Being a Hillbilly. They are human stories that happen to be set amongst hillbillies. Winter’s Bone and Ulee’s Gold are about determined individuals determined to protect their families no matter the risk. Coal Miner’s Daughter is about an artist’s journey from naive teen to superstar. Harlan County USA is about a community banding together to find justice. And Deliverance is about men sharing an ordeal and secrets from it.

1. Deliverance: Four suburban guys seek a mild adventure – canoeing down a backwoods river before it is dammed. The adventure becomes an ordeal. The most horrible things happen to them, and they are forced to do horrible things.

I have watched this twice in the past few years, and it still really stands up today. In particular, the cinematography and editing are fantastic. Here is the famous banjo scene.

2. Harlan County, USA: This is the story of coal miners seeking a union contract with a hostile mining company. It won the Oscar as best documentary. Filmmaker Barbara Kopple embedded herself among the strikers and got amazing footage – including of herself threatened and shot at.

3. Winter’s Bone: A 17-year-old Ozarks girl is determined to save the family home by tracking down her meth dealer dad – dead or alive. The girl’s journey through a series of nasty and nastier Southern Missouri crank cookers is riveting – without any explosions, gunfights or chase scenes. Every moment of this film seems completely real.

4. Ulee’s Gold: In his finest performance, Peter Fonda is a rural beekeeper who must enter a dangerous underworld to track down his druggie daughter-in-law. Here is how Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert saw it.

5. Coal Miner’s Daughter: Sissy Spacek won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Loretta Lynn in this successful biopic. In an early major role, Tommy Lee Jones plays Loretta’s husband Mooney. Levon Helm, the Arkansas-bred drummer for The Band has one of his rare but compelling film roles as Loretta’s Daddy. Besides the performances, the movie works because Loretta must grow from nobody to star, girl to woman and hick to worldly.

Movies to See Right Now

Five Great Hillbilly Movies