Cast: Jennifer Coolidge, Christopher Guest, John Michael Higgins, Michael Hitchcock, Eugene Levy, Jane Lynch, Michael McKean, Catherine O'Hara, Parker Posey, Fred Willard
Director: Christopher Guest
Producer: Karen Murphy
Screenplay: Christopher Guest & Eugene Levy
Cinematography: Roberto Schaefer
U.S. Distributor: Warner Brothers
If you want to laugh - I mean if you really want to laugh, bypass all the multiplex so-called comedy pretenders with their stock plots and predictable jokes. Instead, make a bee-line for Best In Show, the latest sampling of American culture as seen through the lens of satirist Christopher Guest. For those who are familiar with his work, it should come as no surprise that Guest delivers one more time. Arguably the King of the Mockumentary, Guest goes that route again with his latest endeavor, using the familiar format of This Is Spinal Tap (which he co-wrote and in which he co-starred) and Waiting for Guffman (which he wrote, directed, and appeared in) and applying it to the unlikely subject of dog shows. As with Guffman, Guest's satire is pointed and occasionally hilarious, but it is not mean-spirited. The film is a parody, but it displays knowledge and understanding of the subject it is satirizing, and it never takes cheap shots. All of the humor comes from slightly exaggerating (and, in some cases, not exaggerating at all) certain aspects of human (or dog) behavior, then putting them up on screen for all to see.
The story is simple, as befits a movie of this sort. By using "interviews" and manufactured documentary-style footage, Best In Show follows the travels and travails of several groups as they converge upon Philadelphia (where they make the cream cheese) for the Mayflower Kennel Club's annual dog show. We meet Hamilton and Meg Swan (Michael Hitchcock and Parker Posey), a yuppie couple who met at a Starbucks and share a love of J. Crew and L.L. Bean catalogues; Gerry and Cookie Fleck (SCTV vets Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara), a mild-mannered businessman and his wife, whose "loose" reputation precedes her; gay couple Scott Donlan (John Michael Higgins) and Stefan Vanderhoof (Michael McKean), who pamper their dog incessantly; North Carolina native Harlan Pepper (Guest), who runs a shop called The Fishin' Hole and hits the road in his RV with his bloodhound; and Sherri Ann Ward Cabot (Jennifer Coolidge), who shares a love of soup and snow peas with her rich, old husband, and is carrying on a lesbian affair with the handler of her dog.
The screenplay for Best In Show is funny in both subtle and overt ways. Some of the humor is sly; some is in-your-face. It's hard to imagine anyone sitting through this movie and not laughing on a fairly consistent basis. Although Guest and Eugene Levy share the official SAG writing credits, it's clear that the film is an ensemble effort, with a fair amount of improvisation being used. Guest is working with a number of familiar actors - more than half the cast was in Guffman, so they know the rhythms of their director and each other. Posey, Levy, and O'Hara in particular stand out, each offering a performance that is a sample of comic focus. Then there's the incomparable Fred Willard, who is in top form as the TV commentator for the dog show. Throwing out one-liners left and right, Willard takes an already funny movie and elevates it to the next level.
As in all of Guest's films, we come to care about the characters - perhaps not to the same degree that we might in a well-constructed melodrama or tearjerker, but, during the short span of 90 minutes, they become surprisingly real. And, while there's not a lot of tension surrounding the question of who eventually wins the "Best In Show" competition, Guest keeps us guessing, and rewards us with an unexpected twist or two. It's not great drama, but it prevents the story from dissolving into a series of loosely-connected comedy sketches. This is one rare occasion when we can be glad that the film industry is going to the dogs.
© 2000 James Berardinelli