The movie Best in Show directed by Christopher Guest (who also stars in the movie as Harland Pepper) and was released in September 2000 as a mockumentary about a fictional dog show known as the Mayflower Dog Show. It stars Christopher Guest (as Harland Pepper), Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara (the couple from Florida) Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock (as the neurotics from Chicago), Jennifer Coolidge and Jane Lynch (the coach from Glee) and John Michael Higgins and Michael McKean (as the homosexual couple from NY).
The movie was quite well directed and the actors managed to give it quite the “documentary” feel. The only time where you lose the suspension of disbelief is when the film does its running gags. The main ones being the Catherine O’Hara’s character’s promiscuous past and the ridiculous commentators during the dog show itself. But even though parts of the movie break your suspension of disbelief, the humor is quite good. The hotel manager’s straight-faced recounting of the horrors of managing the hotel and how hard it is to wash the “smell of blood and cumin” from the drapes. Obviously, since this movie is a “documentary”, there not much in the area of special effects. The cinematography has a realistic feel to it. There is little to criticize in this movie other than at some parts the pacing feels a bit slow and some of the gags do get old, (such as the American Commentator during the show). However, the movie was entertaining and had a good ending. 3 out of 5 Stars.
Allen Chan
