Best in Show follows several competitors through the venerable Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show in Philadelphia. There is a dysfunctional yuppie couple who treat their Weimaraner as a neurotic child; a folksy would-be ventriloquist from North Carolina who speaks what's in his Bloodhound's mind; a flamboyant gay couple and their prized Shitzus; a Floridian with (literally) two left feet, an adorable Norwich Terrier, and a wife with more of an amorous past than he can handle; and a daffy Anna Nicole-like blonde married to an ancient, wheelchair-bound millionaire who entrusts her Standard Poodle - and more - to the care of a lesbian handler. Most hysterically off-kilter of all is a guest commentator with a knack for wildly inappropriate color commentary (reportedly modeled on baseball star turned TV personality Joe Garagiola, who once hosted the Westminster Kennel Club show to similar effect).
Guest said the idea for Best in Show came to him while observing people at a dog park near his home, just everyday folks whose conversations about their pets sounded more like doting parents. He then spent a year visiting dog shows before he and his co-creator Eugene Levy collaborated on a narrative outline, not a script. He gathered many of the cast members of his earlier feature, Waiting for Guffman (1996), along with other comic talents, all of them expert improvisers, and shot their off-the-cuff riffs on the basic story premise over a period of about six weeks in late 1999. Guest then spent eight months editing many hours of footage into the film's final 90-minute form.
Among the cast are SCTV alums Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara, Spinal Tap co-star Michael McKean, and Guffman players Fred Willard, Parker Posey, Michael Hitchcock, Bob Balaban, and Larry Miller. Christopher Guest himself appears as Harlan Pepper, the folksy Bloodhound owner.
Although something of an instant comedy classic, Best in Show actually got mixed reviews on its release. But it earned a slew of awards and nominations in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., including the American Comedy Award for Funniest Motion Picture, Supporting Actor (Willard), and Actress (O'Hara). The National Board of Review also gave it Special Recognition for excellence in filmmaking. In spite of its highly improvisational nature, the film also received a Writers Guild of America nomination for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Premiere magazine voted it one of "The 50 Greatest Comedies of All Time" in 2006.
All but one of the dogs in the film are champions; the remaining pooch was a last-minute replacement for one whose owner pulled it from production when she realized hers would not be the winner in the fictional story. Real judges were used as most of the on-screen judges, and professional dog handlers advised the actors on proper competition technique.
Guest has continued to work in the specialized but increasingly popular genre of "mockumentary" (a term he actually rejects as terribly glib) because it offers him so many creative possibilities. He told Time magazine in October 2000 (shortly after Best in Show's release): "In the past 10 years, film has become very unspontaneous, whether it's using digital technology or being very storyboarded. This is the other end of the spectrum. Yes, it is just people talking, but that is just as exciting to me as a big wave."
Director: Christopher Guest
Producer: Gordon Mark
Screenplay: Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy
Cinematography: Roberto Schaefer
Editing: Robert Leighton
Art Direction: Gary Myers
Original Music: Jeffery CJ Vanston
Cast: Parker Posey (Meg Swan), Michael Hitchcock (Hamilton Swan), Catherine O'Hara (Cookie Fleck), Eugene Levy (Gerry Fleck), Michael McKean (Stefan Vanderhoof), John Michael Higgins (Scott Donlan), Jennifer Coolidge (Sherri Ann Cabot), Jane Lynch (Christy Cummings).
C-90m.
by Rob Nixon
