Miss Juneteenth may be a bit slow, and a lot predictable, but that doesn’t make it worth a watch. The values at the core of this film make it a must watch.
As a mom of two girls, I love mother-daughter movies. My daughters may be young, but that doesn’t mean we don’t clash heads already sometimes. And I know the time is coming when it will get worse. Miss Juneteenth is a great mother-daughter film, that I really enjoyed. Sure it is a bit slow here and there, and very predictable, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth watching. Because it is.
In Miss Juneteenth, Nicole Beharie plays a single mother who once won the Miss Juneteenth pageant. As she prepares her daughter to hopefully do the same, she is also reminded that winning did nothing for her (as he daughter puts it). Why is she really invested in her winning? Because the pageant winner just doesn’t get the title… they get a scholarship as well.
I absolutely loved Beharie in this film. She is such a talented woman and I truly believed her every step of the way in this movie. She endures so much, and still comes out of it a strong woman. Being a single hard working mom at a thankless job and having a rebellious teen isn’t all she deals with. Her love interest is always getting in trouble, and there is some racism she endures as well.
Like I said above, the movie is slow at times, and it is certainly predictable. However, it is still a great movie, in part thanks to Beharie’s performance, and in part thanks to the heart at its core.
About Miss Juneteenth
Turquoise Jones is a single mom who holds down a household, a rebellious teenager, and pretty much everything that goes down at Wayman’s BBQ & Lounge. Turquoise is also a bona fide beauty queen–she was once crowned Miss Juneteenth, a title commemorating the day slaves in Texas were freed–two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Life didn’t turn out as beautifully as the title promised, but Turquoise, determined to right her wrongs, is cultivating her daughter, Kai, to become Miss Juneteenth, even if Kai wants something else.
MISS JUNETEENTH hits theaters and Digital and On Demand on June 19, 2020.
About Juneteenth
Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Juneteenth independence day, is an American holiday that commemorates the June 19, 1865, announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas, and more generally the emancipation of enslaved African Americans throughout the former Confederate States of America, outside Native American lands.
Texas was the most remote of the slave states, and the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, was not enforced there until after the Confederacy collapsed. The name of the observance is a portmanteau of “June” and “nineteenth”, the date of its celebration.
At first the celebration involved church-centered community gatherings in Texas. It spread across the South and became more commercialized between in the 1920s and 1930s. Often the centerpiece was a food festival. A third stage was reached in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, when the focus became the story of struggle for postwar civil rights.
The 1970s saw a fourth stage, which returned the focus to African American freedom and arts. By the 21st century Juneteenth was celebrated in most major cities across the United States. Activists are pushing Congress to recognize Juneteenth as a national holiday. Juneteenth is recognized as a state holiday or special day of observance in 46 of the 50 states.