''Miss Firecracker'' is a 1989 American

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Thomas Schlamme Thomas David Schlamme (; born ) is an American television director, known particularly for his collaborations with Aaron Sorkin. He is known for his work as executive producer on '' The West Wing'' and '' Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,'' as well ...

. It stars Holly Hunter, Mary Steenburgen,

Tim Robbins Timothy Francis Robbins (born October 16, 1958) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Andy Dufresne in the film '' The Shawshank Redemption ''(1994), and Jacob Singer in '' Jacob's Ladder'' (1990), as well as winning an Academy ...

Alfre Woodard Alfre Woodard ( ; born November 8, 1952) is an American actress. Known for portraying strong-willed and dignified roles on stage and screen, she has received various accolades, including four Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and three Scree ...

, and

Scott Glenn Theodore Scott Glenn (born January 26 between 1938 and 1942) is an American actor. His roles have included Bill Lester in '' She Came to the Valley'' (1979), Pfc Glenn Kelly in ''Nashville'' (1975), Wes Hightower in '' Urban Cowboy'' (1980), as ...

. The film, set in Yazoo City, Mississippi, was written by

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

-winning

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

Beth Henley Elizabeth Becker Henley (born May 8, 1952) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and actress. Her play '' Crimes of the Heart'' won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the 1981 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play, and ...

and is based on her 1984 play '' The Miss Firecracker Contest''. Holly Hunter reprised the role of Carnelle Scott, whom she played in an

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

production of Henley’s play.

Plot

Carnelle enters the Miss Firecracker

beauty pageant A beauty pageant is a competition in which the contestants are judged and ranked based on various physical and mental attributes. Per its name, beauty pageants traditionally focus on judging the contestants' physical attractiveness, sometimes sol ...

which her hometown of Yazoo City, Mississippi, stages every

Fourth of July Independence Day, known colloquially as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States which commemorates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing th ...

, hoping to emulate her cousin Elain's win years prior. Carnelle was taken in as an orphan by her genteel cousins after the death of her mother and grows up

promiscuous Promiscuity is the practice of engaging in sexual activity frequently with different partners or being indiscriminate in the choice of sexual partners. The term can carry a moral judgment. A common example of behavior viewed as promiscuous by man ...

, brash, unfeminine and lacking in grace. Carnelle's closest friends and relatives think she is heading for a big disappointment instead of a triumph at the pageant, but Carnelle is ever hopeful. When her male cousin, the eccentric sociopath Delmount, decides to sell the house they both live in to make money, Carnelle becomes even more determined to win, viewing it as a way to escape her

small town "Small Town" is a 1985 song written by John Mellencamp and released on his eighth album ''Scarecrow (John Mellencamp album), Scarecrow''. The song reached #6 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and #13 on the Adult Contempo ...

existence. Elain returns to the town to give a speech at the pageant after a breakup with her husband. Carnelle insists Elain let her wear the red dress in which she won the contest, thinking that will guarantee her success. Elain delays giving Carnelle the dress and makes excuses as to why she cannot have it while pretending to be supportive. Carnelle surprisingly gets on the

shortlist A short list or shortlist is a list of candidates for a job, prize, award, political position, etc., that has been reduced from a longer list of candidates (sometimes via intermediate lists known as "long lists"). The length of short lists varie ...

for the pageant when one of the other contestants pulls out. Without a red dress she breaks into a locked room in the house previously occupied by a sick relative and takes an old dress to wear. She comes last at the final and is frustrated by her failure. Back at the house, she discovers Elain had brought the dress with her all along and had been lying to her. She confronts Elain about this, realizing the pageant is not the most important thing after all, then leaves the house and goes to the town observatory and watches the pageant fireworks display.

Cast

Production and release

Costing US$4 million, ''Miss Firecracker'' was the first production for Corsair Pictures, a division of United Artists Communications. Scheduled for release in February 1989, it debuted on April 28 of that year and grossed US$1.85 million in North America. A VHS release from HBO Home Video followed in November. ''Miss Firecracker'' was released on DVD on May 25, 2004, from

Millennium Entertainment Alchemy (formerly Millennium Entertainment) was an American independent global film distributor based in Los Angeles, California. The company acquired and distributed feature films, television series and specialty programming. History Millennium ...

Critical reception

The film has a 75% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

based on 12 reviews.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

gave the film 3 and ½ stars out of four and said, "What finally makes Miss Firecracker''' special is that it is not about who wins the contest, but about how all beauty contests are about the need to be loved and about how silly a beauty contest can seem if somebody really loves you." He lauded director Thomas Schlamme and cinematographer Arthur Albert for capturing the local atmosphere of Yazoo City with a "moony, romantic glow." Ebert praised not just the performance of Holly Hunter, but also called Tim Robbins and Alfre Woodard "the hidden treasures of the movie." Michael Wilmington of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' wrote, "When enley'sdialogue is working right, hegets the audience laughing and snorting by turns. What usually saves her is the innate theatricality of her main subject, Southern women, and of her approach.”

References

External links

* *
Miss Firecracker
' at

AllMovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was ...