Best in Show

One of our favorite holidays is Purim, when Esther won the most important beauty pageant of her life to become Queen of Persia. Take that, Miss America!

But a very different kind of beauty contest— to see who is beauty of the beasts— is the subject of the howlingly funny Best in Show. It’s about a dog show! Actually, it’s about the kind of people who spend time and money to primp, preen and parade their pampered pugs, poodles and Pekinese puppies.

The movie was directed by Christopher Guest, who is also one of the stars. He plays Harlan Pepper, who enters his bloodhound in the contest. He, um, also believes his dog can talk and sing. Harlan is not the smartest hound in the pack.

Another dog is entered by Eugene Levy, who plays Gerry Fleck. But someone else has to walk the dog around because Gerry has two left feet. Literally— he even had two left shoes! He and his wife own a travel agency that really looks like it’s going nowhere fast, so they try to win some dough at the show.

Then there is Bob Balaban, who plays one of the judges. Bob is a very talented actor who has been in a gazillion movies. In the new Capote, which is up for some Oscars, he’s William Shawn, editor of The New Yorker (also Wallace Shawn’s dad!). He was also in Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters (another one of our Movies of the Month!) with Richard Dreyfuss, the Holocaust movie Jakob the Liar with Robin Williams (not Jewish!), City Slickers II with Billy Crystal and the Vietnam movie Catch-22 (see the list of its Jewish stars in the Bonus here). 

On TV, Bob’s been in West Wing, Friends, Seinfeld, and an ’80s cop show they just made a movie of called Miami Vice.

Best in Show is considered one of Christopher Guest’s “mock-umentaries,” which uses a documentary style to make fun of various silly things people do. Both Eugene and Bob were in his other two— A Mighty Wind, which makes fun of folk music, and Waiting for Guffman, which makes fun of community theater. Christopher has said he doesn’t like the word “mock-umentaries,” but that’s what people call them! Well, maybe this one is a dog-umentary.

One of the cool things about this style is that the actors are given their characters and scenes in general… but they are allowed to make up a lot of their own lines. (Grab a camera, some silly clothes, and try it with your friends!)

Of course, you could say the real stars of the Show are the dogs. They really do have a lot of personality… and a lot of patience to deal with their owners, who are off the leash!

Bonus: One of the spectators at the dog show is Lewis Arquette. If you recognize his name, it’s because he’s David, Patricia, and Rosanna Arquette’s real-life dad!