"Best In Show"

Title: “Best In Show”
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Christopher Guest
Producers: Gordon Mark and Karen Murphy
Editing: Robert Leighton
Composer: Jeffrey CJ Vanston
Starring:
- Christopher Guest as Harlan Pepper
- Eugene Levy as Gerry Fleck
- Catherine O’Hara as Cookie Fleck
- John Michael Higgins as Scott Donlan
- Michael McKean as Stefan Vanderhoof
- Jane Lynch as Christy Cummings
- Fred Willard as Buck Laughlin
- Parker Posey as Meg Swan

Plot and Critical Review: “Best in Show” is presented as a documentary of five dogs and their owners destined to show in the Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show, held in Philadelphia. The documentary jumps between the owners as they prepare to leave for the show, arriving at the hotel, and preparing backstage before their dog takes the show. The owners and their dogs include:

- Gerry and Cookie Fleck, with their Norwich Terrier Winky. They are a middle-class couple from Florida who run into monetary problems and are forced to sleep in the hotel's storage room when they finally arrive. Throughout the film, they encounter men that Cookie had slept with during her youth.

- Meg and Hamilton Swan, with their Weimaraner Beatrice. An upper-class, stereotypical yuppie couple from Chicago, they think they are taking great care of Beatrice (although really they are just confusing and upsetting her with their neurotic behavior), going as far as taking her to a therapist after she saw Meg and Hamilton have sex. At the show the Swans believe that Beatrice will become unnerved without her favorite toy, the "Busy Bee", and frantically search for a replacement toy before the show begins.

- Harlan Pepper and his Bloodhound Hubert. Pepper's family has raised a variety of hounds for generations, and Harlan continues the tradition by raising bloodhounds (though he has aspirations of becoming a ventriloquist).

- Sherri Ann and Leslie Ward Cabot with their standard poodle Rhapsody in White (a.k.a. Butch), a two-time winner of the show in the past. Sherri Ann is a luscious blonde, having the elderly Leslie as her sugar daddy. She is primarily worried about giving Rhapsody a makeover; however, trainer Christy Cummings makes sure the dog is ready for the show while Leslie stays utterly oblivious to Christy’s feelings. Over the course of the film the empty marriage between Sherri Ann and Leslie crumples while Sherri Ann's romantic involvement with Christy becomes more and more apparent.

- Scott Donlan and Stefan Vanderhoof and their Shih Tzu. A typical campy gay couple, they take great pride in their dog and are confident that she will win the competition.

The owners and their dogs all arrive in time for the show which is hosted by dog expert Trevor Beckwith and oblivious "color" commentator Buck Laughlin. During the first round Beatrice is disqualified when Hamilton cannot control her, but the other four dogs advance to the final round. Just before the finals Cookie dislocates her knee and insists that Gerry take over for her. Though the audience is initially awed by seeing Gerry's "two left feet" (the result of a birth defect), Winky takes Best in Show.

Afterwards the film explores what each character is doing after the competition. Gerry and Cookie returned home to Florida and were overcome with attention after the victory. They go on to record, in amusingly bad style, songs about terriers but discover to Gerry's frustration that the recording engineer is yet another of Cookie's ex-boyfriends. Sherri Ann and Christy have entered into a partnership and publish a magazine for lesbian owners of purebred dogs, called American Bitch. Harlan fulfills his dreams and becomes a ventriloquist, entertaining sparse crowds with a honky-tonk song and dance number. Stefan and Scott are in the process of designing a calendar featuring Shih Tzu dogs appearing in scenes, with appropriate costume, from famous classic films such as Gone with the Wind and Casablanca. Hamilton and Meg Swan seem to have given Beatrice away, allowing them to a calmer, more loving partnership as well as a new dog that they claim enjoys watching them make love.

-

“Best In Show” proved a financial success at the box office, grossing just over twice its initial budget of $10 million. We’d not consider that a “success” in the general sense but for a production of this kind it’s worth the mention. I am unsure how Guest managed to spend $10 million on a film of this quality (I mean production quality only – he must have paid dearly for those improvised treasures), but spend it he did and he was repaid at the box office. “Best…” is generally considered to be the greatest and most beloved of Guest’s directorial/writing projects. Alongside other cult classics like “A Mighty Wind” and “For Your Consideration”, Guest continues to carve out a place in cinematic history. If you’ve not invested in any of his films, please do so. The tempo and comedic “texture” might be difficult to appreciate at first, but I am certain you’ll be pleased by what you’ll find inside Christopher Guest’s comedic wonderland. It should have been Guest, not the USA Network, that took advantage of the slogan, “Where Characters are welcome.”

My Rating: 6.5/10

Content to Caution:
V-.5 – Dog toys be chewed!
L-2.5– Mild and relatively infrequent profanity.
DU-1 - No comment.
RT-1 – No comment.
H/S-1.5 – “Where’s Busy Bee?!”
CH-2.5 – Some inappropriate joking between a homosexual couple. Crude/coarse jokes scattered throughout, but not too scattered.
S/N-1 – Some kissing. Sometimes between people. Sometimes between dogs and people. You know how it goes…

The "Reel Revelation": "There’s Your Problem, Right There…"

Have you ever known someone who seemed to always have someone or something to blame their problems on? Maybe you can think of a person who fixates on a particular element of their life and believes it is the source of all their trouble; a relationship, a job, a neighbor, a family member, a car, etc. If you can imagine such a person, can you recall how often their suspicions were justified? Can you think of a time when all of any one person’s trouble stemmed from one thing? If you can, they’d be a lucky person to only have one difficult thing to deal with!

We are, unfortunately, quick to point the finger and place blame on anything and everything around us when something goes wrong. It’s easy, isn’t it, to look at our lives, find a prominent or troublesome element and say, “Yep, that’s what’s wrong with me!” Sometimes we’ll be absolutely right as there certainly are stand-alone aspects of life which can cause enormous amounts of trouble; addictions, dangerous or harmful behavior, dangerous or harmful friends, and so on. But at a second glance I believe that, if we’re truly honest with ourselves we’ll find that external influences (no matter how internal they’ve become) rank low on the list of what brings us trouble, challenge, and strife. If we look closely we’ll find that we are the trouble.

This concept is brilliantly and humorously illustrated in the challenges Meg and Hamilton Swan face in their marriage throughout the course of the film. The film opens and closes with Meg and Hamilton and their dog (Beatrice at the beginning then Kipper at the end) meeting with a counselor to discuss their marital problems. We can see that Meg is depressed and that Hamilton is holding back much anger but all they can say about their marriage is that Beatrice seems “very depressed” and “so angry”! When “Busy Bee” is lost just moments before the competition Meg screams, “If you don’t find it she’s going to freak out!” Meg is in hysterics while Beatrice calmly looks on from her grooming stand. Instead of looking at one another and voicing their feelings Meg and Hamilton deflected all of their anger, frustration, and hurt onto their dog. In their eyes it was Beatrice who was causing all the trouble, not their own brokenness and sin. They weren’t a bad couple; it was Beatrice who was a “very bad dog”.

This seemed a weak example to employ for illustration until I realized that I’ve done this in my own life many times. Perhaps you have, too. I’ve started to notice a pattern of negative behavior and, instead of facing that behavior straight-on I’ve looked for something to blame it on. I can remember myself conjuring up these sorts of thoughts:

“It’s my job…the stress is so hard to deal with."
“I’d feel so much better if they’d just leave me alone.”
“Once I finish this project I’ll get back on track.”

I wish that i'd said:

“I need to find a healthier way to handle the stress and deal with my anxiety.”
“It’s time to forgive that person and stop blaming them for my mistakes.”
“Lord, help me to balance my schedule so that I can tend to myself the same way I want to care for my creative projects.”

I wish that I had remembered Jesus’ words:

“You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:5)

While Jesus is speaking specifically of judging others I think His words also reach us when we blame (judge something else as being the source of our trouble) our circumstances on a person or thing outside of ourselves. We want to pray, “Lord, if only I didn’t have to deal with X!” Jesus probably wants us to pray, “Lord, my pride is keeping me from seeing the source of my frustration. Open my eyes and may the Holy Spirit guide me to truly see with clarify what’s happening in my heart that’s causing me to stumble.”

Let that be our ambition and goal this Lenten season; to stop blaming others for what we ourselves have done! When we face our own sinfulness we look upon the self we most detest in realizing how fallen and broken we truly are. But Jesus is present to comfort even the most broken soul. Jesus is present to lead us to repentance, renewal, and to restore unto our hearts the joy of His salvation (Psalm 51:12).

See you tomorrow - E.T.