#‘Miss Juneteenth’ review: The comeback of the pageant movie

Pageant movies are like war films for Bravo viewers. They unsparingly show humanity at its most aspirational and its most viciously cutthroat. The smiles are faker than the hair extensions, the spray tan could stain an outdoor deck. But the fighting spirit is deeply felt.

We haven’t seen too many since the reality TV show “Toddlers & Tiaras” and its spinoff “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” turned them into exploitative freak shows.

However, “Miss Juneteenth,” about a Texas scholarship competition for teen black women, brings the subgenre back to its emotional roots. It’s the most touching dramedy about young women battling over a sash since “Little Miss Sunshine.”

It’s also the rare beauty contest film in which the main character doesn’t want to compete. At all. She’s Kai (Alexis Chikaeze), a sweet 14-year-old who just dreams of dating boys and dancing in her room, but her controlling mom Turquoise’s wobbly financials put pressure on her to succeed.

Turquoise (Nicole Beharie) won Miss Juneteenth when she was a girl by reading a poem by Maya Angelou, and she wants her daughter to copy her routine, all while wearing a dress that belongs in a bus-and-truck tour of “Cinderella.” The crown didn’t change Turquoise’s life, but maybe it could change Kai’s.

What makes the film sing, though, are the non-pageant scenes out in the real world. Turquoise is the main character here, not her daughter, and we watch her bartend at a roadside watering hole at night, and make extra money beautifying the dead at a funeral parlor.

These are tough gigs, filmed with great respect, and she still struggles to pay the bills. Kai’s dad, Ronnie (Kendrick Sampson), is in and out of prison, and Turquoise is torn between love and stability.

Playing a stage mother can be a tall order, but Beharie does so with empathy and spares us the showmanship. It’s a quiet performance masking years of mounting frustration caused by an American dream unrealized. She has a very honest maternal bond with Chikaeze, who’s innocent as can be.

Writer-director Channing Godfrey Peoples’ film wows with character more so than plot. One scene involving Turquoise’s Bible-toting, exorcism-loving mother comes as a total shock, while the twee ending is far too tidy, like a midseason network-TV sitcom.

Even with its predictable conclusion, the warm “Juneteenth” is not to be missed.