Miss Juneteenth

It is an engaging film about a woman who is working very hard to make ends meet, while also grooming her daughter to be a pageant queen. I feel for her experiences.

This is my first review here, and I'm primarily writing because the current rating seems so off to me! I found the story and characters very compelling, and found myself wanting to know more about what happens next after the film ended. The cinematography was beautiful, especially the juxtaposition between pageant pomp and poshness vs small town Texas scenes. The sense of community was portrayed with tenderness and clarity without being too forced or obvious. It's refreshing to see full and flawed characters - but who we still cheer for and want to see succeed. Definitely recommend this film.

"Miss Juneteenth" has its heart in the right place, and I want nothing more than to be able to unequivocally recommend a movie directed by a black woman about the black experience in America. But the film can't shed an amateurish quality that prevents it from hitting its marks.

I fault the screenplay mostly, which is also the work of the film's director, Channing Godfrey Peoples. It spends a good 90% of its time depicting the life of a struggling mostly single mother (the father is in the picture, but not reliably) and her teenage daughter as a joyless grind, only to switch gears in the movie's last ten minutes to land on a happy ending in which all dramatic conflicts are resolved and everything's tied up with a nifty bow. The ending doesn't feel earned, since the screenplay doesn't adequately set it up, and the whole thing hits the viewer as being disingenuous. I appreciated the film's resistance to wallowing in a misery porn aesthetic, but I think it could have landed somewhere between despair and the Hallmark movie "everyone gets what she wants" ending that it gives us.

As a consolation for the film's weak script, it features a lovely performance by Nicole Beharie as the mom whose determination to give her daughter what she missed out on blinds her to what her daughter actually wants.

Grade: B

Reflecting the lives of many single mothers, with the hand they've been dealt not the one they'd dreamt of, but with no choice but to play it regardless. A mother, who had her child young, perhaps younger than she had wished in her dreams, tries to avoid the same pitfalls for her daughter against overwhelming odds, compounded by poverty, lack of opportunity and poor paternal support (amongst other things) - persevering nonetheless. Genuine and sincere performances support the central character played by Nicole Beharie who is outstanding. A far from uncommon story the world over.

This is just a good, solid character-based story that delivers. The pacing is perfect for this type of narrative, the characters were well developed and realistic, the dialogue spot on. Throw in the true-to-life BBQ pit and it's the right mix to make a good film.