Miss Juneteenth

"Miss Juneteenth" is a surprisingly realistic depiction of poverty, if little else, with its focus on a (mostly) single mother raising a teenage daughter. Despite being about a beauty pageant and the mother's forcing her ambitions upon her daughter (with the potential scholarship for rationalization), it does well to realize the important things--in this case, education and entrepreneurship and supporting others' diverse dreams. Dance may be either an expression of one's joy or their deepest regret, for instance. I also like the depiction of the hollowness made of otherwise hallowed institutions: namely, the black church being turned into snake-oil casting out of devils and Juneteenth celebrated by a parade and an uptight beauty pageant--involving, of all things, the straightening of African-American hair. Rival suitors prove to be just as frivolous. Meanwhile, the humble car repair shop or bar and grill become sites full of potential for redemption.

It's a well-made little movie that graciously doesn't pretend any great message on race or anything else despite subject matter involving the holiday celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the United States that might've seemed to call for such in lesser hands than those of debut filmmaker Channing Godfrey Peoples. The cast overall is good, too, especially Nicole Beharie in the lead. Often, I don't care for these sort of low-stakes slice-of-life dramas, but I'll take a well-enacted one such as "Miss Juneteenth" over an overacted and overwrought picture with pretentions of grand import any day.

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.

7/10 - this entertaining and important film akes for good Juneteenth viewing and gives a spotlight to the culturally significant pageant in a place you might not expect it.

"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

Nicole Beharie shines as an African American mother who wants her teenage duaghter ("Chikaeze") to win the Miss Juneteenth pageant and take advantage of the opportunities she was not able to seize in her own life. Peoples uses a delicate touch to tell this touching mother daughter story, and deserves a lot of praise as a first time director.