"Best in Show" was the second of a series of "mock-umentaries" by a talented comedy ensemble, directed by Christopher Guest (a.k.a. Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap). Officially written by Guest & co-star Eugene Levy, it was also heavily improvised, like the other films, and as such, it has some humour that is uproarious and some that doesn't work so well. But when this movie has a good joke, it's a riot.

The film basically pokes light fun at the various dog owners that enter their beloved pets into the prestigious Mayflower dog show. Harlan Pepper (Guest) is a fly fishing store proprietor with a bloodhound, Gerry and Cookie Fleck (a hilarious Levy and Catherine O'Hara) have a Norwich terrier, gay couple Stefan and Scott (Michael McKean and John Michael Higgins) have a Shih Tzu, Sherri Ann (Jennifer Coolidge),the trophy wife of a much older man (Patrick Cranshaw),has a standard poodle that is handled by Christy (Jane Lynch),and Meg & Hamilton Swan (Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock) are a combative yuppie couple with a Weimaraner.

These are our main characters, but there are also plenty of funny characters in the margins, as well. Fred Willard is hysterical, as always, as one of the two dog show emcees (the other played by Jim Piddock, a good straight man to Willard) with some priceless off-the-cuff remarks. And Larry Miller plays a hostage negotiator with whom Gerry and Cookie stay along their journey. He's a hoot when he has to talk his son down from a garage roof. Together with Levy, they provide the brightest moments in the movie - not that everybody here isn't great. The Swans are definitely unlikeable types, though, which makes it kind of hard to laugh at them.

And the dogs themselves, of course, are endearing, especially that little pooch Can. Ch. Urchin's Bryllo (where do people come up with these names?) that plays Winky the Norwich terrier, and Ch. Quiet Creek's Stand by Me as Hubert the bloodhound.

Overall, a bright, zippy (only clocking in at a trim 91 minutes),and engaging comedy - good for comedy fans (and dog lovers) in general, but particularly worth catching for any fan of these performers.

Eight out of 10.

This is the best of the films (so far) that Christopher Guest has created using his very talented ensemble cast. Previously, they'd made the excellent WAITING FOR GUFFMAN and following BEST IN SHOW, they made the very enjoyable A MIGHTY WIND. As for their latest, FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION, the less said the better.

The film appears to be a documentary about dog shows and several contestants in particular. You follow these few chosen dogs from pre-show preparations all the way to the big night where one of them is chosen best in show at the fictitious "Mayflower Kennel Club". However, none of these people are real dog show enthusiasts but talent improvisational actors that parody many of the common types of people you meet in the dog show world. Amazingly, even though the characters are rather outlandish, there is a lot of truth to the personalities they are parodying--as decades ago I had some experience with dog shows and this is a VERY cutthroat group of people! My favorites of the dog owners were the incredibly high-pressure and tense yuppie couple who just exuded anger and volatility. I also loved the openly gay couple, as they were terribly funny and clever. However, the best performance probably wasn't from any of the couples but from Fred Willard who played the world's stupidest and least talented announcer in human history. His comments were uniformly inane and often betrayed him as an incredibly stupid person--how he got to be the announcer for such a prestigious show is anyone's guess. The other contestants featured were also quite funny--the high-priced professional poodle handler and its rich owner, the country boy and his hound as well as Winkie's "parents" who could barely scrape together enough to make it to the show.

Despite the improvised style of film making, the pieces all fit together wonderfully and told a very funny and compelling story--one that is NOT for dog owners only. Exceptional acting made this one of the best comedies of the last decade. Clever and consistently funny.

By the way, try to find this on DVD as the extras were actually worth seeing. While a bit painful to watch, I loved seeing Harlan Pepper and his beach ball collection in particular!

Christopher Guest and friends are now making a mockumentary on the dog show circuit. It's a whole bunch of wacky characters with their wacky problems and their wacky life. Everybody is doing a great job. Michael McKean and John Michael Higgins are the gay couple. Catherine O'Hara is married to Eugene Levy with his insane glasses. Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock are an uptight couple. Jennifer Coolidge is married to an old geezer and Jane Lynch plays her trainer. There is a big problem in this movie. The separate teams have a hard time getting together because they don't really function as a team. They are separate and they stay separate. It limits their interactions and limits the possibility of comedy. It becomes a series of the characters separate and talking into the camera with wacky stories or having a wacky time. It's not until halfway through the movie that the characters start getting together as they prepare for the dog show.