Written by Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy; directed by Christopher Guest; starring Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, Parker Posey, Michael Hitchcock, Catherine O’Hara, John Michael Hggins, Jennifer Coolidge, Jane Lynch, Jim Piddock. Fred Willard and Michael Mckean
Christopher Guest is a veteran of the fake documentary, otherwise known as the mockumentary. In 1983, he not only starred as Nigel, the “ours goes up to eleven” guitar player in Rob Reiner’s seminal mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, but he also helped write the film. Three years ago, he set out on his own with Waiting for Guffman, the uproarious mockumentary chronicling an amateur staging of Blaine, Missouri’s 150th anniversary.
After a failed feature film (Almost Heros) Guest has returned to the genre that made him famous and mock documents the prestigious Philadelphia Mayflower Dog Show in Best in Show. Anyone who has seen the Madison Square Garden Westminster canine extravaganza on USA knows that dog shows are an extremely spoofable subject and Best in Show lives up to its promise.
Guest begins the movie by mock-umenting an uptight yuppie couple, Meg and Hamilton Swan (Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock), describe their Weimaraner Beatrice’s depression to a pet psychologist.
Apparently, Beatrice has been dejected since she witnessed her “parents” having sex. The scene is hilarious and clever and only the beginning. Best in Show is overflowing with oddballs: there are Gerry and Cookie Fleck (Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara) from Fern City, Florida, along with their Norwich Terrier Blinky; Harlan Pepper (Guest) from Pinenut, North Carolina, and his bloodhound Hubert; Stefan Vanderhoof (Michael Mckean) and Scott Donlan (John Michael Hggins) from Tribeca, New York, with their Shih Tzu Miss Agnes; and Sheri Ann Cabot (Jennifer Coolidge), the wife of an elderly millionaire, Sheri’s butch dog handler Christy Cummings (Jane Lynch), and Rhapsody In White, Sheri’s standard poodle and the two-time defending champion of the Mayflower Dog Show.
To add to the madness, the dog show is called by one grave British dog show authority (Jim Piddock) and one canine-illiterate “color” commentator (Fred Willard). With Oscar and Felix-like incompatibility, their banter provides some of the movie’s truly memorable moments. Like when Willard suggests that next year, to liven things up, they might dress the dogs in comic costumes.
Of course, the movie is not without flaws. For instance, the Cookie and Gerry Fleck story line – Cookie continuously bumps into ex-lovers and Gerry, literally, has two left feet – grows tedious over the course of the film. But, like amateur theater or heavy metal rock bands, dog show society is replete with eccentric individuals ripe for ridicule. And Guest, once again, proves he can lampoon a subject without lambasting it. – JoAnne Steglitz