Drop Dead Gorgeous (Movie Review)

A plus-size teen takes on the beauty pageant industrial complex in this hilarious, well acted teen comedy.

Following her underrated performance in the rap dramedy Patti Cake$, rising star Danielle Macdonald shows she’s more than a one-trick pony with this raunchy and thoughtful film about three women fighting against the sizeist and look-ist preoccupations that pervade their small Southern town. As Rosie Dixon, a pageant local who has been rendered bulimic by her devotion to the contest circuit, Macdonald shatters our stereotypes with her unflinchingly honest portrayal of an Everygirl. Her daughter Dumplin’s reluctant participation in the Miss Clover City pageant, the only way she’ll be able to fund her university dreams, proves to be the catalyst that finally makes Rosie realize that she needs to fight for her own self-worth.

The other standout performances come from Kirstie Alley as a former winner and the mother of one of the girls, Ellen Barkin as the pageant’s sardonic owner and Denise Richards as the head judge. The chemistry between the cast is so good that even viewers who have no interest in beauty pageants will find themselves rooting for these determined women to make it all the way. This movie isn’t the first to tackle the topic of beauty queens, but it does so with such a fresh perspective that it’s hard not to love it. It also manages to avoid many of the pitfalls that have plagued previous attempts. Unlike Insatiable, Drop Dead Gorgeous isn’t cynical about the nauseating industry it’s investigating and its cruel pageant mothers.