10 films featuring Dolly Parton

After the publication of Sarah Smarsh’s She Come By It Natural, the latest biography of the beloved songstress, here’s a look at Dolly Parton’s career in the movies.

Admittedly, Parton’s filmography can be described as patchy (at best), but there are enough hits, curiosities, and why-on-earth-did-she-do-it? duds to merit a retrospective.

And who knows – some of those movies previously deemed as clunkers may be worth a second look. Possibly.

Before launching into my film rundown, it’s worth mentioning the frequent use of Dolly’s songs in movies other than hers, often used in a contrapuntal fashion. We’ve had 9 to 5 featured in Deadpool 2 (2018), Islands in the Stream in HBO’s Watchmen (2019), a re-arranged Jolene in Dumplin’ (2018) and most recently, the repeated use (recalling Netflix’s Russian Doll and Harry Nilsson’s Gotta Get Up) of toe-tapper Here You Come Again in HBO Max’s critical hit The Flight Attendant. And of course, I Will Always Love You, first aired in Parton’s own Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), then covered to huge chart success ten years later by Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard (1992).