Best In Show

I found this 2000 follow-up to Waiting for Guffman funnier than its predecessor, in part because the characters are regarded with more affection and less snobbery, even if most are still yokels. The putative plot turns on the 125th annual Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show in Philadelphia, where the various comic grotesques converge. Christopher Guest, who directed from a script he wrote with costar Eugene Levy, expertly plays one of the less funny characters, a southern fishing and hunting expert with a hound; Levy is funnier as a yahoo suburbanite salesman accompanied by his once promiscuous wife (Catherine O’Hara). Funniest of all is Fred Willard, as an inane TV commentator who speaks exclusively in non sequiturs. Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock play a hysterical young couple who treat their pet like a neurotic child, and even more overdone are the gay and lesbian contestants. PG-13, 90 min. (JR)

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