SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, or better, come back to this article later!
A former beauty queen and single mom prepares her rebellious teenage daughter for the “Miss Juneteenth” pageant.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Miss Juneteenth Plot Summary and Synopsis
Turquoise Jones (Nicole Beharie), is a single mother in a suburb of Fort Worth, Texas. She is the former winner of the local Miss Juneteenth pageant which offers full scholarships to college. She enters her 15-year-old daughter, Kai (Alexis Chikaeze) in the same pageant despite her daughter’s obvious lack of enthusiasm.
While other former Miss Juneteenth winners have gone on to have successful careers, Turquoise’s education was derailed by the birth of Kai, which forced her to drop out of college and for a time work as a stripper.
To make ends meet she currently works at a bar and part-time as a beautician at a mortuary where the owner is romantically interested in her. However, Turquoise is still in love with Kai’s father Ronnie, and the two continue sleeping together despite officially being separated.
Kai struggles with her preparations for the Miss Juneteenth pageant, wanting to pursue dance instead. When her father fails to come through with the money for her pageant dress, she is forced to compete in her mother’s old gown.
The Miss Juneteenth pageant goes forward. To Turquoise’s surprise, for the talent portion, Kai performs Maya Angelou’s Phenomenal Woman, the poem that Turquoise performed herself and had been pushing Kai to perform, except set to dance. Turquoise is proud of Kai’s performance, but nevertheless, Kai fails to even place in the pageant.
Miss Juneteenth Ending
After the owner of the bar where she works suffers heart problems, he lets Turquoise know that he must sell the bar. She gives him a counter-proposal, offering to slowly buy out his business. He accepts and Turquoise begins her new life as a businesswoman.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).