American Masters (TV Series) Loretta Lynn: Still a Mountain Girl (2016) User Reviews

Awful uninteresting documentary on a presumably interesting woman

[fahdshakir · 1/10 · 2 September 2018]

This is a pretty terrible documentary. I've heard of Loretta Lynn, but don't know anything about her. According to this documentary, she is less interesting than some of the people I've run into at McDonalds. At best this documentary might be considered all the parts cut out of an exceptionally tepid obituary for someone who isn't dead. There's virtually no drama, no tension, no narrative arc, nothing to make her seem interesting for the last hour and a half of the movie. The most unique thing about the presumably hard grinding times before she became really famous was that she once had to wait four hours at a radio station before they played her record. That's it. The most unique thing after fame was that she randomly displayed a pair of panties Patsy Cline loaned her. With no real explanation provided either, it's treated as something awkward a grandparent said that's quickly brushed aside by the children. Most of these interesting hints are clumsily contained in the first 30 minutes or so as well. The rest is just bits and pieces of her family (with less than fascinating insights such as the children were sometimes given a type of chewing gum at a bar) and a handful of celebrities saying the same two or three things none of which have any emotional resonance. She must have been an impressive figure in her time. This documentary unfortunately manages to convey none of that.