All Beauty Queens Have Broken Bones
2026 · 10m · USA
Directed by Max Tullio
Genres: coming-of-age, dark comedy, drama
Tones: dark, darkly comic, provocative
Two Midwest sisters chase the Miss Teen Indiana crown by reading divine signs into everything and engineering an injury campaign for the sympathy vote. Older sister Rose narrates while younger sister Marlo absorbs the damage.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Pageant satire is the laziest genre on earth — except when somebody actually means it. Tullio adapting a Madeline Cash story sounds like the cure for that.
Max Tullio frames pageant prep as devotional and broken bones as competitive advantage — Drop Dead Gorgeous with Thoroughbreds' chill and a sister-narrator's serene cruelty. Strong premise, well-managed.
Pageant-prep strategy treating broken bones as competitive advantage, narrated as devotional, with two Midwest sisters reading divine signs into everything — Max Tullio swinging at coming-of-age via religious-imagery pageant satire is a confident swing.
Reviews
It's moody portrait that moves quickly and twists rationale and stomachs.