Best in Show (2000) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)

I was impressed that it was more than that as well. I didn't know it would actually get me drawn into the storyline and that I'd catch myself wondering about the fates of the characters.

Michael McKean and John Michael Higgins are great as a couple of rich gay guys who are as over-groomed as their dogs. They are witty, and sophisticated, and seem to have some condescension in their tone, but they really turn out to be just a couple of nice, funny guys enjoying their lives.

Guest himself is just wonderful as the Southern owner of a bait store who just loves his bloodhounds. I thought it was a real guy, even though I knew it was Guest, and even though he was saying some mighty dumb things.

But the highlight of the film was, without a doubt, the brilliant Fred Willard, who is the greatest improv comic in the world, even unmatched by Robin Williams, and has his character down to a science. "Hi, I'm, the incredibly clueless guy who will say anything that pops into his mind irrespective of how politically incorrect it is, and I'm totally heedless of how people react to my comments." He's the incredibly stupid guy you meet in a bar who thinks everything is part of a space alien or government conspiracy, and drones on for hours about how much he likes saltines, and has a theory about how the salt is placed on the cracker grain-by-grain, in a classic example of old workmanship. He's the guy who believes every word of Weekly World News.

Well, they took that character and made him the local TV announcer, co-host of the televised pageant. I think they pretty much told him to do whatever he wanted to do in his usual character, and every word he utters is sheer genius. 

Willard came up with some great stuff:

On bloodhounds - well, yes, he's a good lookin' dog, but I think he'd be so much cuter if he had one of those Sherlock Holmes hats and a pipe. I think the audience would really like that, especially if they could make some smoke come out of the pipe.

On the terrier group - you know these dogs are so adorable and so loveable, that's it's tragic to think that if we were in certain countries right now, we'd be eating them.

And I can't even recreate his comments about a female judge who checks all the doggie testicles. 

Willard just went on like that forever. It is amazing and so much fun to watch how his mind works.

Also brilliant, but far less broad, was his announcing partner, Jim Piddock. Jim has to play the typical British guy who is supposed to be the expert commentator, but knows all the owners and the pageant directors, and can therefore never say anything specific or even slightly favoring one over another. You and I could provide the same "expert" commentary. Everything he says is well-modulated, and sounds sensible, until you realize that he hasn't said anything at all. Every dog is a beautiful animal, every judge is highly respected, every breed is a popular breed well loved by the audience. In his own way, he was more full of it than Willard, but in a far subtler way. I also admired the way he kept a straight face when Willard wandered off on one of his un-PC riffs. The camera took in both of them when Willard talked, and you could see Jim start to smile, then regain control. It must be next to impossible to work with Willard. 

Those two guys were dynamite.

But what really makes the film special is that it actually draws you into the lives of the owners, and you like or dislike the characters. You think of them as people you know.

Guest is a genius. My colleague, Lawdog, pointed out to me that Guest is our Mark Twain, and that he is, but he's also a terrific actor, comic, writer, and impersonator. 30 years ago he was in Lemmings on the New York Stage, and his impersonations of James Taylor and Bob Dylan were uncanny and hilarious. 

A memory of him singing as James Taylor ....

 

 "farewell to New York - with your streets that flash like strobes

farewell to Carolina -  where I left my frontal lobes.

I can hear those contracts callin' , I'm too sensitive to stay

and my highway toes are thumbin' me away"

It's strange, but writing that makes me sad when I think of the guys from my generation who are lost to us already. How I wish John Candy could be in this film as a dog owner, or that Michael O'Donoghue ("Mr. Mike") could have contributed his mean-spirited genius, or that Doug Kenney (co-founder of the National Lampoon) could have created a brilliant allusion gallery. Sigh.

Be sure to watch the deleted scenes. There are 17 of them. My favorite was Guest showing the interviewer his beach ball collection, during which I never stopped laughing. They cut it because it really didn't belong in the film, but lord, was it funny. The DVD also includes full length commentary by co-writers Guest and Levy, but I didn't have time to listen to it, darn it.

The film isn't perfect. In fact, it has some slow moments, but it's as close to perfection as a mockumentary can get, except for the other ones Guest has done.

Now when are they going to get all the episodes of SCTV out in a DVD set?