Best In Show

View Date: October 21st, 2000

Cast :

Writers: Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy

Director: Christopher Guest

Sometimes, the most entertaining things come not from our minds or imagination, but from simple observance and recantation of what we see around us every day.  Slice of life movies, those that hold the magnifying glass up to a certain aspect of society and reality, and then show it to us, untainted and natural, stand the best chance of success, since the enjoyability of any type of media is directly relational to how we can close to home it hits.  Christopher Guest showed the ability to capture the quaint charm and simple naivete of small town America in the wonderful Waiting for Guffman.  This time around, Guest continues to find the complex amid the simplicities of life, focusing not on a geographic area, but on a demographic, in the satirical mockumentary, Best in Show.

Pets are a large part of most peoples lives, some to the point of obsession.  These people treat their pets as good, if not better, than other relatives and themselves.  This is the demographic that Guest focuses on, as he shows the before, during, and after of several people on their way to a Philadelphia dog show.  Guest himself plays a backwoods North Carolina simple man, who loves his hound dog (sometimes a bit too much) and believes, like the others portrayed, that he is the best of his kind.  Other staples of Guest films appear to spice things up.  Levy and O’Hara as a suburban couple, who could have walked out of his small town in Waiting for Guffman, and into this film, are a delight indeed.  We go with them through their relationship, past and present, including a wonderful appearance from Larry Miller, as an ex of O’Hara’s (another running joke) who apparently was very friendly in her youth.  Also popping up are Posey and Michael Hitchcock as an obsessive yuppie couple(who met at adjoining Starbucks coffee shops) , McKean and John Michael Higgins as a gay couple, and American Pie’s Jennifer Coolidge (Stiffler's mother) as a money-hungry greedy fan.  There are stereotypes which are handled with a deft touch, since they seem more real in the guise of a documentary, and also seem to fit and be quite natural in these surroundings.  The final piece to the puzzle, and scene-stealing performance of the movie, comes from the consistently funny Fred Willard as a commentator at the show.  He delivers his lines with such a sharp, reckless abandon, that he actually seems to believe what he’s saying is true, while not believing that others can’t see things from his point of view.  It is this touch of natural charm which carries Best in Show over and above most comedies out now.  We laugh at what we relate to the closest, and this film is populated with at least one person who everyone can relate to, or knows.  Guest also captures the emotion of these characters, showing us the various sides of obsession and love through their treatment of their pets.  You feel like you can see inside them, into their pasts, and futures, simply through the situations and interactions that Guest presents.  It will make you laugh, because of the obvious, and make you think, because of the relatibility. 

Ultimately, Best In Show is yet another wonderful dissection of society, by use of real, or mockumentary style of film making.  Just as American Movie showed passion and desire through the eyes of someone who is willing to sacrifice everything for a dream, this film shows how regular people will go to any lengths, to win, succeed and fulfill dreams, even if not for themselves.  Guest must be one of those people, like me, who watches and observes people very closely.  He then has the ability to mold these observations into characterizations and fit them into a story that relates it to a level that most can understand.  The humor works, for the most part, although some scenes may not quite hit, but not out of trying and effort. In a summer, and film season, littered with overblown effects, false, predictable stories, and unfunny physical style humor, Best in Show demonstrates that the most amusing things are those which we see every day.  Guest just turns on the camera, and seemingly lets it happen.  Thank goodness he did. ($$$ out of $$$$)

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