Miss Firecracker

Well I guess in a way it may be a review. I worked on the movie set I was with the carnival they used in the movie. I absolutely enjoyed working on the set and would like to reconnect with most of the actors the director and others that worked on the film. To Mr. Scott Glenn a special thanks for spending time with my mother though she was a complete stranger at first too him. She had always wanted to chat with him after filming. Since she has passed that can not happen but still Mr. Glenn I thank you for the time you gave her. Marry Stennburgen, wow what a great lady loved meeting her and talking with her. I actually lived several blocks from her mother in later years when I got married, thanks for the memory and I still want to meet Ted. BTW Marry can be overprotective LOL. Alfie was a hoot. There are so manny more to remember for good things. There were two negatives, Holly Hunter a person I hope to never cross paths with again she is verry rude and egotistical. I Ms Hunter sees this she will remember me as the guy that would not follow her demand to leave the motel pool so dhe could have it all to herself. The other was going home from the set I was caught in a tornado that actually lifted my truck and trailer off the ground. After slamming back on the ground upright my truck was hit by flying firewood but all was well in the end. To the director of the film all I have to say is hurry up and wait! She will know the meaning of that comment. Love the movie mainly because my parents can be seen in it but I still view it from time to time.

I remember seeing this movie when I was a kid. I finally found out on dvd and got to rewatch I love this little gem. Mary Steenburgen is great in this movie as Elain. Alfre Woodard is fantastic as Popeye.

Tim Robbins, Mary Steenburgen, and especially Holly Hunter lit this film gloriously ablaze. This little southern film about a woman wanting to win her local beauty pageant will make you laugh and cry. A must-watch for slice-of-life fans and also fans of movies which take place in the south.

Carnelle Scott (Holly Hunter) works at a Mississippi fish plant. Her cousin Elain Rutledge (Mary Steenburgen) is a celebrated former beauty queen who is scheduled to make a speech at the local Miss Firecracker beauty pageant. Despite being too old and too short, Carnelle enters the contest. She gets fired from her job. She gets her friend Popeye Jackson (Alfre Woodard) to make the costume. Elain plans to leave her family in Atlanta. Delmount Williams (Tim Robbins) is tired of his life and returns to confront his sister Elain for leaving him in an insane asylum. Delmount intends to sell the family home where Carnelle lives. Carnelle is desperate to wear Elain's red dress and win first prize. I don't know anything about the play. It seems to me that it would be more compelling if Carnelle is younger and more homely. Despite the appealing cast, I find the performances flaky without being funny. The plot meanders around the quirky characters. Thomas Schlamme's directions are mostly indie. It's not until Delmount starts beating up Ronnie Wayne in the second half that it finds its comedic legs. It needs to be sharper as a comedy satire of small town pageants.

Carnelle has lived in Yazoo City, Mississippi in her aunt and uncle's house since she was orphaned as a child. She grew up with her cousins Delmount (Tim Robbins) and Elain (Mary Steenburgen). Delmount comes home from a mental institution and wants to sell the family home. Elain comes home from Atlanta where she has her own problems. Elain won the Miss Firecracker beauty pageant years ago. Carnelle decides to enter the pageant in her last official year with regards to her age. Alfre Woodard played Popeye Wilson, a seamstress, who has a crush on Delmount. The film is rich in character development and this film should be shown around the Fourth of July summertime. Ann Wedgeworth played a pageant coordinator. The film was done in 1989 after an off-Broadway play of the same name. The film is heartwarming about really winning. Carnelle wanted to redeem herself and reputation.

I might have enjoyed this movie more had I not already been very familiar with The Miss Firecracker Contest, the award-winning play on which the screenplay is based. The play is as neat and compact as the film is muddled and overblown. I loved the play and was disappointed to see that some of my favorite elements were changed for the film. The play is set in Brookhaven, MS, has a cast of six, and plays like a symphony with recurring themes and a distinct rhythm. The film moves the action to Yazoo City, a somewhat more industrial setting, so it loses some of the "southern charm" of the play. The film shows us the other contestants, the audience members, and various other members of the community. This "carnival atmosphere" distracts us from the core issues of the play, which are Carnelle's relationship with her family and her need to find her place in the world. Although I feel that Alfre Woodard did a stellar job in portraying Popeye Jackson, this role was originally written as a very backwoods white girl. The change to a black character made it impossible to keep the very sweet romance between her and Delmount in the screenplay. In the film, Elaine, played marvelously by Mary Steenburgen, displays a certain mean streak which is absent in the play. In conclusion, Miss Firecracker is a very well-acted but overly busy adaptation of a beautifully succinct play about a very eccentric southern family. I recommend the movie for the performances of Holly Hunter, Mary Steenburgen, Tim Robbins, and especially, Alfre Woodard. I also recommend reading or seeing the play to really understand the core characters and their relationships to one another.

What I expected was a humorous satire on beauty pageants. What I got was a bizarre family drama that had little to do with pageants. The first-half dialogue tells us about Carnelle's (Holly Hunter) plans to be in the contest. But the action mostly centers on peripheral family problems involving Carnelle's two cousins, Elain (Mary Steenburgen), a former winner, and Delmount (Tim Robbins), something of a roving cad. Both just happen to arrive back in Carnelle's small town to be characters in the script. The second half gets us closer to pageant time. But again, Elain and Delmount dominate the plot so that, for example, as contestants parade on-stage, the camera is on Delmount delivering dialogue tangential to the film's supposed theme on beauty pageants. The one funny moment was a reference, by another character, to bullfrogs that had been dressed in miniature glamorous costumes. The story's theme is somewhat clichéd: contestants enter pageants for acceptance and love. That may have been true in times past. But I think in today's competitive world, the real motivation is money or a shot at stardom. Visuals are acceptable. Cinematography is competent though conventional. That the film was shot on location in Mississippi adds some realism to the setting. Casting and acting are okay, I guess. Background music trends nondescript and unmemorable. This film could have been so much more. I don't know anything about the play upon which the film is based. But I might have enjoyed the movie more if the writers had scrapped the original material and wrote an original story that put the focus on the pageant rather than on a dysfunctional family.

Holly Hunter plays Carnelle, a small town girl with average looks who wants to be Miss Firecracker. The title that her older cousin (which she grew up with) already won years ago. Her cousin Elain does not think that this is the best idea, but when Carnelle asks to borrow her red dress she says yes. Even though she's not going to lend her it anyway. Her other cousin Delmount (Tim Robbins) is a bit wierd, but handsome and wanted by most of the towns women. No one really thinks she can make it, but she's got a suprise for all of them... Holly Hunter is perfect for this role, with her cute smile and karisma. Tim Robbins, who has great talent as seen in his later work, does his job as an actor. Nothing more. It's a cute and warming movie. But that's it.

Based on the play of the same name, Miss Firecracker stars Holly Hunter repeating her off-Broadway stage role, along with Mary Steenburgen, Tim Robbins, Alfre Woodward, Scott Glenn, and Ann Wedgeworth. This film is about a small Southern town and its beauty pageant, which takes place on the 4th of July. It's not a coincidence that the playwright, Beth Henley, has the pageant held on Independence Day, because that's what the film is really about. Independence from the opinions of others, independence from the ties of what someone has set as a standard of beauty, the independence to explore and find yourself. Carnelle Scott is a young local woman, and she believes that if she can be Miss Firecracker, she will receive the validation she has always craved, and then leave the town and go onto success elsewhere. She has no friends in town, and her reputation is not the best. She has a boyfriend who adores her (Glenn) but it isn't enough. One inspiration for her is her cousin, Elain, and there, Carnelle doesn't see the forest for the trees. Elain is a past Miss Firecracker. She's not only totally self-involved, but her life is built around her past victories. To Carnelle, Elain's life is perfect. Elain's brother is the volatile Delmount (Robbins) who wants to sell the house Carnelle lives in. He'll split the money with her. He was released from a mental institution; Elain and her husband refused to take him in. Since this is the last year Carnelle is eligible, she decides to go for the pageant in a big way. And one thing she wants is to wear the bright red evening gown that Elain wore when she won; she has even dyed her hair bright red to match it. Carnelle's major support comes from Popeye Jackson (Woodward), a young woman who wears Coke bottle glasses and works in a dress shop. Popeye helps Carnelle be outfitted for the pageant, and develops a crush on Delmount. Though the character of Carnelle is the focus of the film, the one to be emulated is Popeye - kind, helpful, and uncaring about people's appearance. She's more interested in what's inside. And hopefully along the way this is what Carnelle learns as well. Very sweet film and Hunter is dynamite as Carnelle. The movie is bigger than the play, which may not have been the best option for it. The direction by Thomas Schlamme, who has found great success in television, is only so-so. It should be a tighter production. Don't miss Carnelle's part in the talent competition.

Good cast misused in one of the most disappointing films I've seen lately. The story rises up good expectations, but the characters are unpleasant and so the spectator easily switches off. It pretends to be half a comedy, half a moving drama... without really success. Only pintoresque details about local beauty contests save it from disaster. It's a pity.