Coal Miner's Daughter

Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) is a biographical drama directed by Michael Apted — watch it online on iFILM. Sissy Spacek plays country music legend Loretta Lynn from her girlhood in the Kentucky coalfields through her rise to Nashville stardom, a performance that took home the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Loretta marries young — her husband Oliver "Doolittle" Lynn, played by Tommy Lee Jones, hauls their demo records door to door at radio stations across the country because nobody else will. The film tracks that slow, stubborn climb: cheap gigs, a cramped tour bus, the Grand Ole Opry. Levon Helm of The Band plays Loretta's father, and Spacek sang every song herself.

Apted keeps the focus on character over spectacle, which is what separates this from the standard music biopic formula. The result is one of the most honest portraits of working-class American ambition the decade produced. Stream Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) online on iFILM.