The film, set in Yazoo City, Mississippi, was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Beth Henley and is based on her 1984 play The Miss Firecracker Contest.

[3] Carnelle enters the Miss Firecracker beauty pageant which her hometown of Yazoo City, Mississippi, stages every Fourth of July, hoping to emulate her cousin Elain's win years prior.

When her male cousin, the eccentric sociopath Delmount, decides to sell the house they both live in to make money, Carnelle becomes even more determined to win, viewing it as a way to escape her small town existence.

"[8] He lauded director Thomas Schlamme and cinematographer Arthur Albert for capturing the local atmosphere of Yazoo City with a "moony, romantic glow.

"[8] Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "When [Henley's] dialogue is working right, [she] gets the audience laughing and snorting by turns.