Young adulthood is a time of inner demons and outer beauty; of high demands and low autonomy. All Beauty Queens Have Broken Bones by Max Tullio is a haunting short in the lineage of The Virgin Suicides, Heavenly Creatures, and Thoroughbreds in which two young women confront a dark, complicated world with a plan to wrest control and agency over themselves, but which ultimately harms them and the world around them. Marlo (Gigi Grace) and her sister Rose (Betsey Brown) while away hours in a rural, Malickian midwest landscape drinking beer and shooting the shit. In the quiet moments, they listen for something divine in the breeze. Maybe it’s God, or maybe it’s the booze, but Marlo gets an idea on how she can win a local beauty pageant: breaking her legs to earn sympathy. They eye a croquet mallet as Marlo tries to get Rose to buy in and execute the violence.
Tullio’s website cites “phenomenology” as a guiding principle of his art, and so it’s no surprise this film offers a subjective, unsettled experience. The film intercuts a handful of episodes of unclear chronology or even reality — a bartime hookup, the pageant itself — as it sets a stark mood in its quick 7 minutes.
All Beauty Queens Have Broken Bones shows Tullio with a mature, arthouse-thriller cinematic vision. He soaks in the uneasy loneliness of the flyover country (the film appears to have been shot in the midwest despite the credits citing the film as produced as part of Tullio’s studies at Columbia in New York). It evokes this past year’s The Woman in the Yard for making open, rural space feel suffocating.
The short’s script is adapted from the short story “Beauty Queen” by Madeline Cash, which appears in her 2023 collection Earth Angel. (As a small shoutout, Rose’s shirt bears the phrase “Earth Angel.”) Cash recently released her debut novel Lost Lambs to strong reviews, including a New Yorker spotlight. Tullio receives the short’s writing credit for the adaptation.
The performances from Grace and Brown are quite strong. The pair of actors not only resemble sisters but have the excellent, easy chemistry of close (perhaps over-close) siblings; the pair’s presence suggests twisted inner thoughts for Rose and Marlo.
The production also contribute to the mood, with Ella Murray as the production lead and Gabrielle Johnson in charge of costumes. Marlo wears a white, ethereal dress to match her spacey demeanor, while Rose’s black tank top and shorts are implicate her as the woman of the action. (One charming the credits, which appear to be hand-scrawled.)
Akiva Kenig lends the film terrific, expressive cinematography: the mix of sprawling, hilly exteriors shot on telephoto and velvet-lit interiors, with great work from colorist Harrison Kraft in evoking a Twin Peaks poisoned small mood, also help give the film a well-developed cinematic texture. The short features an excellent original score by Derek Zeoli which adds some plinking tension, as well as two songs, including a Hank Williams tune.
The real standout on the crew side is Anna La Roche’s editing which gives full power to Tullio’s elliptical presentation of Marlo and Rose’s demented plan. She threads the needle between giving the film a clear emotional arc and an appropriate amount of ambiguity and mood-setting cuts to give the film some rhythmic pop.
All Beauty Queens Have Broken Bones received significant festival play in 2025, and he has two other shorts, Mouthfeel and Only the Lord Will Set You Free, on the horizon. According to his web site, Tullio is also developing his first feature film, which All Beauty Queens Have Broken Bones suggests could fit nicely in the current landscape of stylish thrillers a la A24.
All Beauty Queens Have Broken Bones is written and directed by Max Tullio, based on a story by Madeline Cash. You can find Tullio’s website here. The film is streaming for free on NoBudge.
Crew credits include Anna La Roche as editor, Akiva Henig as cinematographer, Ella Murray as production designer, Gabby Johnson as costume designer, Derek Zeoli as composer, and Harrison Kraft as colorist. Additional crew includes Lojus DeCaprio as assistant director, and Kat Folker as prosthetic makeup artist. The film was produced by Imani Nyala Cook-Gist. Cast includes Betsey Brown, Gigi Grace, and Jonah Howell.
Dan Stalcup is the film critic for The New Cinephile and The Goods. Reach him at dan.stalcup@gmail.com.