A critical and engaging documentary of a young woman's (Hrönn Sveinsdóttir) excursion into the world of beauty pageants. She sees an ad for contestants in a "new kind" of beauty pageant (Miss iceland.is) and decides on a whim to sign up because the standards that are set fit her, while finding them ridiculous. How can you compete in who is the cutest? She wants to study this culture that is so alien to her. Her competitive spirit soon gets the better of her and we watch how she and her mother Sigrún, with camera in hand, fight to win and how the standardized demands of beauty pageantry start to wear on. Being a contestant is not enough. This documentary is so good because it hides nothing, Hrönn puts herself and her character on the line and being the prankster that she is does her best to shake things up. We see how her friends and family react with scepticism, watch her take walking lessons, go to charity events and photo shoots, get her fat measured and cheat on working out, for which she has neither the time nor need... All the while she is criticizing the whole process, chainsmoking and conspiring to be number one.
All in all a very good film, the editing manages to build up a good pace with much tension near the end and a glimpse of Iceland's history of Miss World winners is nicely incorporated. Good work, I'm happy it finally came out after a legal battle with the owners of miss iceland.is. The strongest point of the film is the close relationship between Hrönn and her mother Sigrún. A film for anyone interested in human behaviour. I give it 9/10.
