SOURCE: “Beth's Beauties,” in Film Comment, Vol. 25, No. 3, May-June, 1989, pp. 9-15.

In the following essay, Jaehne critiques Miss Firecracker as a work that examines “how beauty affects who we are and who we wanna be.”

In Miss Firecracker Mary Steenburgen clears her throat to deliver her keynote speech, “My Life as a Beauty.” She explains how she won her title, “Miss Firecracker,” (she's beautiful) and why she will always reign supreme (she's unassailably beautiful). The audiences in the theater and onscreen giggle uncomfortably, because we are supposed to have transcended Queen for a Day consciousness (sure, but being a beauty queen hasn't hurt Diane Sawyer). Miss Firecracker asks, among other things, how beauty affects who we are and who we wanna be.

Steenburgen as Elain is passably beautiful, but she radiates her right to rule in life as Astonishingly Beautiful as she once ruled on the parade float...