The American deep south, and the terminally stupid, are both parodied in 'Miss Firecracker', whose cast includes Holly Hunter and Tim Robbins but which comes across as an amateurish effort. The film attempts a blackly comic tone but is too crassly executed, and in places plain dumb, to succeed on either front; and the central story (set around a beauty contest) is neither interesting or convincing; and it is hard to believe that the setting is supposed to be 1988 (1958 feels more like it - and I know the south is not New York City, but the film plays along with every southern cliché). I have seen more offensive films, and more incoherent ones, but rarely have I had less sense of what a director was trying to achieve.
Review of Miss Firecracker
