Best in Show

February 9, 2002

I haven’t seen Waiting for Guffman, but I still think it’s hilarious. Don’t tell anyone, but I haven’t seen This is Spinal Tap either.

I actually saw this in the theater when it first came out, but I was suffering from a bit of writer’s block back then, it happens to us all. Why can’t someone invent some kind of “Writer’s Viagra”? Anyway, I got the DVD for Christmas, so watching it again last weekend brought it back into the review queue.

The film opens with neurotic yuppies, Hamilton and Meg Swan, complaining to a psychiatrist. Ever since “Beatrice” caught them performing the congress of the cow, she just hasn’t been the same. Turns out that Beatrice is their dog and they are fucking crazy. In short order, we are introduced to a bizarre cast of characters – Cookie and Gerry Fleck and their beloved terriers; Harlan Pepper and his bloodhound; Sherri Cabot (Stifler’s mom!) and her standard poodle, Rhapsody in White AKA Butch and last, but not least, the very ‘out’ Scott and Stephan and their Shih Tzus. They are all competing in the Mayflower Dog Show and may the best dog win.

The humor in this mockumentary is very understated, not over the top like Drop Dead Gorgeous. It’s also not 8 millimeter hell like The Blair Witch Project. It’s slickly done, yet the camera is not obtrusive at all – it’s almost as if you are there at the Mayflower with these freaks.

The best part about watching Best in Show is watching it with Sherry and Laura, my boyfriend’s mom and her best friend. They laugh until they cry the entire time, each and every time they watch it. They actually watch dog shows – and they say that some of those dog show people are really like that! It just blows my mind.

You must get the DVD for the deleted scenes.

Go see Best in Show – and take your mom.