Anytime I am asked, “Hey Casey, have you seen this movie?” it is safe to say that I probably have not. I will rewatch the same movie (most likely “Moana”) 20 times in a week, but I will miss out on watching the ones everyone raves about. For example, prior to sitting down and watching “Miss Congeniality,” I used to think people meant to say “Miss Peregrine’ and messed it up, so it is safe to say I went in without a clue of what to expect. Luckily, I was highly impressed.
I knew the movie would be amazing when the opening scene showed a young girl punching a bully in the face to protect this nerdy boy. Then, the nerdy kid got mad at her for defending him, and she punched him too. I love a queen who knows how to defend herself, what can I say. As someone who loves boxing, when I saw that she was still pursuing her passion of using her fists on the same Everlast punching bag that I have at home, I knew I was going to love Sandra Bullock’s role as Gracie.
One thing about me is I adore any show with FBI agents, especially if there is a strong female lead who does not let her male coworkers get to her head. Gracie was exactly that with her donut-eating, snorty-laughing, carefree mentality. I appreciated that when Gracie got her “glow-up” to go undercover in the pageant, it was not a simple removal of the glasses and then an “OMG SHE’S BEAUTIFUL!” She genuinely worked hard to get pageant-ready, but it was more a mindset shift than her looks changing to fit the standards.
I really loved seeing Gracie realize that the beauty pageants were not “anti-feminist” like she originally thought, but rather they allow women to come together and bond over a shared passion. It was so sweet seeing her form cute friendships with the other girls, even if they all thought she was stealing the crown from the winner at the end.
OK, I have to address this: As a romance-obsessed teenage girl, I loved the slow-burn romance between Gracie and Eric. Going from the scene where he dodged the kiss with the Snickers bar after her song about him calling her gorgeous to the ending where she sang it again and he cut her off with a kiss. That is the proper way to handle romance in movies. Bring back 2000s love in movies!
Some moments brought about some weird faces from me, though. When she fell into the bus multiple times, I kind of wanted to turn off the movie, but I pushed past it. There were also some culturally questionable outfits, and some heavy topics like sexual harassment that were seemingly swept under the rug, but once again I watched it 25 years late and times have changed drastically.
In all, this movie made me laugh during scenes like “Perfect date?” and “Harsher punishment for parole violators" made me feel pride in her change of heart, and kept me pretty entertained. I would definitely say this movie was worth the watch, even if I was the last to join the fan-club.
