alternat%watserv1.waterloo.edu@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Ann Hodgins) (08/09/90)
I had some doubts about renting "Miss Firecracker" as the cover photo showed nothing more than a smiling beauty contestant in a flashy patriotic costume. I wondered if it would be a cheery teen beauty movie with lots of pretty girls in unlikely romantic situations. Or it mightt have been a stark expose of the ugly underbelly of the pageant circuit. Or the tragic story of the downfall of a local beauty. But it was none of the above. Instead it was a very intelligent and positive movie. Perhaps it could have been called "Tennessee Williams - The Next Generation" because the characters had all the vividness and passion of Tennessee's famous heros and heroinnes, like Maggie the Cat, and Stella and Blanche Dubois or Brick (the Alcoholic of dubious sexual orientation) or the role that helped make Marlo Brando famous as a young man. Strong and intelligent and memorable characters, especially the women. The characters in "Miss Firecracker" are cut from the same cloth. But this is the 90's and the sexual repression and economic depression that trapped the Tennessee Williams characters in desparation has eased a little. The characters have a few more options and their faults are accepted more casually. The characters have been 'cut some slack' and the more accepting social mores allow for for some humour and many surprise twists. Lots of humour. And you never know what will happen next. The family has hit rock bottom but there is just enough love and just enough grace to save them, if they try, as the youngest daughter sets out to fight for her life under the only banner she knows, the vision of her cousin's assention to the throne as Miss Firecracker and subsequent rise to social prominence. Ann H.