September 28–October 5, 2000

movie shorts

Beautiful

Mona (Colleen Rennison plays the 12-year-old version) is a small town girl, beset by her alcoholic mother (Linda Hart) and abusive stepfather (Brent Briscoe). To escape, she dreams of winning beauty pageants: she makes her own costumes (until she finds a best friend to do it for her), takes pageant-walk classes with diva Kathleen Turner, and earns the $100-and-something entry fees by delivering groceries to her neighbors. Mona grows up to be Minnie Driver, whereupon she seeks attention by sleeping with a series of boys: she has a baby, who, grown into Pepsi Girl Hallie Kate Eisenberg, believes that her mom is the best friend, who’s grown up to be Joey Lauren Adams, so that Mona can continue to enter Miss American Miss contests, which are, of course, so Neanderthal that mothers can’t participate. Yeah, and secrets will out and lessons will be learned. Written by Jon Bernstein (Ringmaster), directed by Sally Field, and executive produced by Driver’s company, Beautiful probably means well, but it’s so annoyingly cliched and condescending toward its underclass protagonists that it only makes them and their aspirations look goofy and pathetic. The plot is particularly galling: Mona makes it to the national contest, Adams is arrested for murdering an old woman at the nursing home where she works (don’t even ask), and Eisenberg (who doesn’t much like Mona) has to go carry her costumes and such. By this time, the whole shebang is just about caved in, but it goes on for another half-hour or so: it feels endless.

—Cindy Fuchs

(UA Grant; UA Riverview)