“Which one of these dogs would you want to have as your wide receiver on your football team?”

Clare’s Rating: I like dogs, but I LOVE dog people.

Clare’s Review: I watch dog shows on TV. I find them highly entertaining. Of course, I sat for an hour and a half yesterday and watched a public access presentation about how Jim Morrison and the Beatles were possessed by evil spirits and controlled by Satan to take over the world with Eastern philosophical thought. That ranks right up there as “highly entertaining” to me as well. So take my enjoyment of dog shows for what it’s worth. I’ve always wondered about the people behind the dogs at these shows. Who are they? What’s it like back stage at these events? How crazy could these people possibly be? This movie provides all the answers I’ve been looking for.

Best in Show is a mockumentary written and directed by legendary mockumentary genius Christopher Guest (who was responsible for unleashing This Is Spinal Tap on the world back in the mid-1980s). As though that movie weren’t enough, he’s gone on to make a bevy of other films none of which have been as well received or held up to enduring cult status. However, Best in Show is hilarious. It’s a character study more than a story, but the characters are so perfectly drawn and portrayed that the lack of discernible plot hardly matters.

This movie isn’t bust-a-gut funny, but it had me smiling the whole way through and I really loved how committed all the actors were to making their characters as funny but realistic as possible. Of particular appeal to me were Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock as the high strung, braces wearing, NYC couple, obsessed with clothing catalogues and Starbucks who determine how well their marriage is going by how their dog behaves. Christopher Guest is also extremely entertaining as Harlan Pepper, the laid back Georgian blood hound owner. And yes, the owners of each competing dog do look strangely like their pets. Just like real life.

Definitely a worth while trip to the video store.

Kyle’s Rating: I’ve got a fever! And the prescription! Is more pug love! As in pug hugs! Not in any other sense of the word!

Kyle’s Review: An excellent effect of dark abstract humor is that you have to pay close attention to it so you can catch all the nuances. Getting the joke means having to follow each step so you can understand the ultimate payoff, and being able to read between the lines sometimes to grasp the true (and usually this is the darkly humorous stuff) meaning behind words and actions.

Best in Show is side-splittingly funny but not in ways you may be used to. Like Christopher Guest’s other cinematic output the emphasis here is on the insane and unpredictable intricacies of human nature. A bunch of richly diverse (two left feet! a shady past! no money! and many more quirky quirks!) and incredibly wacky people get thrown together at a dog show and as they enter each other’s orbits funny is born through the fantastic and vaguely realistic shenanigans that occur. Close to real life, but slightly skewed and so much more satisfying. And in addition to that, Best in Show has dogs and Ed Begley, Jr. as well! You can’t go wrong with this movie!