Miss Firecracker

An off-Broadway play by Beth Henley became the 1989 film Miss Firecracker, joining a host of comedies that satirize the American character through its most eccentric citizens. Unhappy Carnelle Scott (Holly Hunter) is desperate to escape her reputation as Yazoo City's 'Miss Hot Tamale.' She throws herself into a do-or-die effort to win the Mississippi town's big talent contest, an honor won ten years ago by her older sister and unattainable role model Elain (Mary Steenburgen). Elain returns to bask in her local celebrity, while Carnelle's oddball brother Delmount (Tim Robbins) arrives fresh from a stint in an asylum. Seamstress friend Popeye Jackson (Alfre Woodard) sews a patriotic costume for the diminutive Carnelle, who with her huge head of red hair looks like a hyper Little Orphan Annie. Top-billed Scott Glenn is Carnelle's tubercular sometimes-lover, the most subdued of a parade of exaggerated characters. The pathetic Carnelle attempts to redeem her self-image through a gaudy public spectacle turning cartwheels with an American flag in her mouth. The display is as inept as it is energetic - but her spirit comes through. Vogue's critic distilled the film's American essence: "It's filled with people driven to find their limitations, people willing to throw themselves off a precipice without knowing whether they'll be caught or hit bottom."

By Glenn Erickson