Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (August 11, 2026)
A look back at box office charts of decades ago shows a popular cinematic landscape awfully different than today’s. Actually, at the top of the 1980 box office listings, we get an obvious choice: The Empire Strikes Back, a sequel that made more than twice as much money as the year’s second place flick.
However, in a trend that would never happen today, only one sequel appears in the next five hits: Any Which Way You Can, a follow-up to 1978’s Every Which Way But Loose. All five of the films after Empire offer comedies, and outside of Can, all come from original concepts.
Number seven on the 1980 list provides another surprise: a dramatic biopic about a country singer. Coal Miner’s Daughter made good money and also received bunches of plaudits, including a Best Actress Oscar for star Sissy Spacek.
In the 1940s, 13-year-old Loretta Webb (Spacek) marries 19-year-old Oliver "Doolittle" Lynn (Tommy Lee Jones) and quickly becomes a mother of four. Though she seems destined to a life of poverty, Doolittle recognizes Loretta’s musical talent and encourages her.
Eventually Loretta finds her way into concert venues. This starts her on a path toward stardom as a country singer.
Like all biopics, Daughter takes some liberties. In particular, it makes Loretta a couple years younger at the time of her marriage than she actually was.
Apparently Lynn herself liked to push the claim she married at 13, whereas in reality, she was 15. From the vantage point of 2026, either 13 or 15 seem crazy young for anyone to wed, but I guess Lynn felt 13 made her come across as even more underprivileged.
In any case, I didn’t think this became an issue, and the other alterations of fact feel surprisingly minor as well. Of course, I’d prefer a movie without any flights of fancy, but Daughter seems to hold closer to reality than many of its genre.
Indeed, the most ludicrous aspect of Daughter comes from its desire to pass off 30-year-old Spacek as 13 and 33-year-old Jones as 19! Since the story covers about 25 years, they “age up” as it goes, but it still feels tough to swallow these discrepancies in the movie’s formative moments.
Beyond my inability to swallow Spacek and Jones as teens, they do fine in their parts. Did Spacek deserve an Oscar for her work?
Probably not, but I don’t view that as a criticism of the actor. Daughter simply doesn’t make Loretta a particularly dynamic character.
Given that Lynn was still alive – and only in her late 50s! – when they shot the movie, perhaps the filmmakers played it safe and didn’t to give her too many rough edges. Whatever the case, Loretta tends to come across as a two-dimensional character though much of the movie, though she does broaden in the second half.
Spacek does what the script asks. She just can’t give the part depth that the screenplay lacks.
Doolittle becomes the more interesting role, as the film allows him greater complexity. While Daughter paints him as a bit of a rogue in the early days, we see added layers, especially in the way he believes in and advocates for Loretta.
Jones does nicely in the part. He plays both Doolittle’s rougher side as well as the way he cares for Loretta in a convincing way.
As a story, Daughter follows a traditional format, though this seemed less cliché 46 years ago. Circa 2026, we’ve seen boohoogles of tales like this that cover lots of territory and feel like “greatest hits” reels.
Actually, Daughter overcomes some of those pitfalls because it spends so much time with pre-fame Loretta and Doolittle. We go well into the movie’s second hour before Loretta even produces a record, much less turns into a star.
Most flicks of this sort would speed through the early days segments so they can get to all the famous songs. I think filmmakers fear audiences will lose interest if they need to wait too long to hear recognizable hits, so most musician biopics crank through the basics to bring us get there.
This factor ensures Daughter comes with more depth than the average flick in its genre. I regularly criticize tales of this sort that cover decades of time because they stretch the narrative and characters so thin.
While I still wouldn’t call it a deep effort, Daughter manages to avoid these pitfalls because it invests so much time in the Loretta/Doolittle tale before she launches a musical career. Although I still don’t think their relationship becomes tremendously interesting, at least it creates a spine to the tale that adds impact to the “rise to fame” segment.
I admit I don’t think Daughter ever manages to become a great biopic. Still, it fares better than most in its genre and turns into a fairly involving rags to riches tale.
