Best in Show

Before I watched this Best in Show, I always thought that most people felt happy when they won and sad when they lost. But after watching it, I think that my perspective on this subject changed a bit. In all honesty when the movie first came on in class, I was a bit adamant about the relevancy of the show because its about a dog show after all. The movie started off a little bit dry and confusing  because of the shifts between the interviews of each dog show participant; each family seemed to be odd and eccentric in their own way. After a while of the interviews, I actually began to enjoy it because of all the vivid portrayal of the characters and the subtle humor from each family, their obsessions with their dogs, and just their crazy antics overall. I thought that this really help show how everyone’s perspectives are different and how happiness and life in general varies uniquely. When the dog show finally rolled around not only did it further highlight the distinct characteristics of each human being, but the real action also showed up. The gay couple was completely ostentatious and flamboyant but oh so cute at the same time. The arguing couple kept, well, arguing and fighting with each other over nonsense. They fought so much that I wasn’t surprised when their dog became hostile, attacked the judge, and got disqualified. On top of that, it also wasn’t surprising when each of the main characters’ dogs advanced to the finals. What was surprising was when the trophy wife kissed the lesbian poodle handler; that just added on to the humor and craziness of this movie and how you can’t really tell what exactly makes people happy. I honestly had no idea who was going to win the dog show, but I thought it would be the poodle since it was so well trained and had a professional handler. Each family was so obsessed with this competition and prized their dogs so much that it made it very intense to watch who won and to see how devastated the other families would be when they lost. When the shitzu won, of course Cookie and Gerry were super ecstatic, and I was happy for them too because they were a nice couple. The most surprising and the whole point of my response comes at the end of the movie when you catch up with the family some time after the dog show. You’d expect the other families to be training their dogs like crazy, stressed out, and upset that their dogs didn’t win but surprisingly that wasn’t the case. Each family found the silver lining to their cloud and made the best out of losing. Heck, it didn’t even seem like they lost! Each family found something happy to pursue and be passionate about even after losing and I thought that was just super awesome.