Best In Show
You wouldn’t think that a movie about dog show owners and their handlers would be all that interesting, much less funny, but you’d be wrong. Writer-director Christopher Guest has fashioned another mock-documentary in the same style as his previous movie, Waiting for Guffman. In Guffman, he explored the world of small-town theatrical production; in that movie, he managed to poke gentle fun at the foibles and hopeless dreams of a handful of untalented people, somehow without seeming cruel. He does the same in Best in Show. No matter how hard we laugh at some of the ridiculous things these people do as they travel to Philadelphia in their quest to win a premier dog show, we also learn to sort of care about these people. From an ultra-square man literally born with two-left feet (Eugene Levy, who is terrific, as usual); to his wife Cookie (Catherine O’Hara), who seems to have spent the 80s sleeping with every man she could find; from a materialistic young couple (Michael Hitchcock and the fabulous Parker Posey) so concerned with their dog’s mental health that they neglect their own; to a southern man convinced his bloodhound communicates with him via telepathy (Christopher Guest); these are people we can settle in with, and we enjoy the ride all the way.
There are some huge laughs in Best in Show, most of them involving things the characters say, or don’t say, to each other in front of the camera. Since this was filmed as a documentary, the characters are interviewed directly for the camera, and this technique enables us to see more clearly the hilarious ways in which the characters interact each other, kid themselves, justify their behavior and (not so convincingly) cover up their resentments.
The whole “mocumentary” genre was perfected in This Is Spinal Tap, in which Guest played the lovably brain-dead lead guitarist of the titular heavy metal band. Guest seems to have learned all the important lessons from that movie; the most important lesson perhaps being that when the characters take themselves seriously, it’s that much more hilarious.
by Derek Neff