Miss Firecracker is a 1989 comedy film directed by Thomas Schlamme. It stars Holly Hunter, Mary Steenburgen, Tim Robbins, Alfre Woodard, and Scott Glenn. The film, set in Yazoo City, Mississippi, was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Beth Henley and is based on her 1984 play, The Miss Firecracker Contest. Carnelle enters the Miss Firecracker beauty pageant in her hometown of Yazoo, Mississippi, trying to emulate her cousin Elain's win some years previous. Carnelle was taken in as a waif by her genteel cousins after the death of her mother and grows up promiscuous, brash,... unfeminine and lacking in grace. Few expect she can win, her closest friends and relatives think she is heading for a big disappointment, but Carnelle is ever hopeful. When her other cousin, the eccentric sociopath Delmont Tim Robbins 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 existence. Elain returns to the town to give a speech at the pageant after a breakup with her husband.
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| Release date: | April 28, 1989 |
| Directed by: | Thomas Schlamme |
| Rated: |  |
| Runtime: | 102 Minutes |
| Music by: | David Mansfield |
| Screenplay by: | Beth Henley |
| Adapted from: | Miss Firecracker contest |
| Genre: | Comedy |