Themes: Underdogs, Looking For Love, Small-Town Life
Main Cast: Holly Hunter, Mary Steenburgen, Tim Robbins, Alfre Woodard, Scott Glenn
Release Year: 1989
Country: US
Run Time: 105 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
A hot tamale tries to throw off a different sort of heat in this comedy of small-town manners. Carnelle Scott (Holly Hunter) is best-known in her hometown of Yazoo City, MS, for her unrepentant promiscuity. An orphan taken in by her genteel relatives, she idolizes her older cousin, Elain Rutledge (Mary Streenburgen), a former Fourth of July "Miss Firecracker" contest winner who is taking time out from her life as a pampered wife in Atlanta to give a speech on "My Life as a Beauty" at this year's pageant. Determined to follow in Elain's footsteps, Carnelle puts a damper on her libido and enlists the help of local seamstress Popeye Jackson (Alfre Woodard) in preparing for the pageant. She also implores Elain to let her borrow the red dress in which Elain won the contest in 1972. Meanwhile, Elain's brother, ne'er-do-well Delmount Williams (Tim Robbins), arrives with a get-rich-quick scheme that involves hocking the family estate. Into this mix steps Mac Sam (Scott Glenn), one of the men who contributed to Carnelle's scandalous past. Adapted by Beth Henley from her own play The Miss Firecracker Contest, Miss Firecracker finds Hunter reprising her stage role. The actress also starred in Henley's Crimes of the Heart on Broadway, although she did not appear in the 1986 film adaptation. Woodard and Steenburgen previously appeared together in Cross Creek. Miss Firecracker was shot on-location in real-life Yazoo City. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Review
A decade before the crop of turn-of-the-millennium beauty-pageant flicks -- Drop Dead Gorgeous, Beautiful, and Miss Congeniality among them -- this hothouse flower of a comedy said most of what needs to be said about the subject, and it did so with a good deal of wit and style. Featuring the indelible comic troika of Holly Hunter, Mary Steenburgen, and Alfre Woodard, Miss Firecracker is at once a bittersweet character study, a slapstick send-up, and a lighthearted riposte to Miss America ideals. Fresh from the double triumph of Broadcast News and Raising Arizona, Hunter gets her hands dirty as trashy, determined Carnelle Scott. Steenburgen and Woodard, meanwhile, play her haughty cousin and her oddball helpmate with two very different but complementary forms of comic acuity. Tim Robbins turns in fine work in the supporting role of another of Carnelle's cousins, while the other fictional and real-life denizens of Yazoo City, MS, help sketch out the script's backdrop of small-town Americana. As gaudy and over-the-top as a real-life pageant, the film probably won't do much for audiences who prefer restrained realism. But the dynamics between the principal players ring so true that the film remains winning even at its shrillest moments. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Veanne Cox - Tessy Mahoney; Ann Wedgeworth - Miss Blue; Trey Wilson - Benjamin Drapper; Amy Wright - Missy Mahoney; Bert Remsen - Mr. Morton; Gregg Burge; Kathleen Chalfant - Miss Lily; Robert Fieldsteel - Tommy Turner; Avril Gentles - Mrs. Biggs; Greg Germann - Ronnie Wayne; Joyce Murrah - Ruby Kay; Brent Spiner - Preacher Mann; John Burgess - William; Avy Kaufman; Mindy Marin; Mitch Saxton - Mitch
Credit
Maher Ahmad - Art Director, Helen Pollak - Associate Producer, Molly Maginnis - Costume Designer, Thomas Schlamme - Director, Peter C. Frank - Editor, Homer Denison - Composer (Music Score), David Mansfield - Composer (Music Score), Fred Berner - Production Designer, Kristi Zea - Production Designer, Arthur Albert - Cinematographer, Fred Berner - Producer, Ross E. Milloy - Producer, Lewis M. Allen - Producer, Richard Coll - Producer, Beth Henley - Screenwriter, Debra Schutt - Set Decorator, Beth Henley - Play Author
