Greatest Film Scenes
and Moments



Best in Show (2000)

 



Written by Tim Dirks

Title Screen
Movie Title/Year and Scene Descriptions
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Best in Show (2000)

In director/writer Christopher Guest's satirical, semi-improvised mockumentary film about championship dog breeding and shows:

  • the interviews with different sets of neurotic and quirky dog owners, including salesman Gerry Fleck (Eugene Levy), cursed with two left feet (literally), and his wife Cookie (Catherine O'Hara) with their Norwich terrier "Winky" - and his astonishment when his wife admitted she had "hundreds" of boyfriends
  • the description of the relationship between young and very buxom trophy wife Sherri Ann Cabot (Jennifer Coolidge) and her very elderly 80 year-old husband Leslie (Patrick Cranshaw): ("We have an amazing relationship and it's very physical. I mean, he still pushes all my buttons. And uhm, you know, people say: 'Oh, but he's so much older than you.' And you know what? I'm the one having to push him away. We both have so much in common. We both love soup and uh, we love the outdoors, uh, we love snow peas, and uh, talking and not talking. Uh, we could not talk or talk forever and still find things to not talk about")
  • wealthy, materialistic, and neurotic dog owners - catalogue lovers Meg Swan (Parker Posey) and Hamilton Swan (Michael Hitchcock), with matching sets of braces, who met at Starbucks: ("Not at the same Starbucks but we saw each other at different Starbucks across the street from each other") who were worried with their therapist that their Weimaraner "Beatrice" had been traumatized and was depressed after watching them have experimental Kama Sutra style sex: ("We got a book, Kama Sutra. I lit some candles and, uh, played some music and got myself in a position that wasn't, uh, very easy for me emotionally. Uhm, it's called the congress of the cow, uh, where, uh, the woman is bent over, the hands are on the floor, and the man is behind")
  • the characters of Christy Cummings (Jane Lynch) and Sherri Ann Cabot who created a magazine titled "American Bitch" designed specifically for lesbian pure-bred dog owners
  • the scene of Harlan Pepper (Christopher Guest) traveling to the road show with his bloodhound, in which he told a story about how he drove his mother mad by his unique talent of naming nuts: ("I used to be able to name every nut that there was. And it used to drive my mother crazy, because she used to say, 'Harlan Pepper, if you don't stop namin' nuts,' and the joke was, of course, that we lived in Pine Nut, and I think that's what put it in my head at that - at that point. So I'd go to sleep - she'd hear me in the other room and she would just start yellin'. I'd say: 'Peanut. Hazelnut. Cashew nut. Macadamia nut.' That was the one that would send her into goin' crazy. She'd say: 'Would you stop namin' nuts!' And Hubert used to be able to make the sound, and he wasn't talkin', but he used to go "rrrawr rrawr" and it sounded like Macadamia nut. Pine nut, which is a nut, but it's also the name of a town. Pistachio nut. Red pistachio nut. Natural, all natural white pistachio nut")
  • the national dog show itself, the 125th annual Mayflower Kennel Club's competition for the "Best in Show", emceed by the comical TV commentator Buck Laughlin (Fred Willard) and his long-suffering co-host Trevor Beckwith (Jim Piddock): ("When you look at how beautiful these dogs are, and to think that in some countries these dogs are eaten," and "If you're gonna put them on a football team, which would be your wide receiver, which would be your tight end? Who can go the farthest, the fastest?", and "Look at Scott! He is prancing along with the dog! Man, I tell you something, if you live in my neighborhood and you're dressed like that, you'd better be a hotel doorman", and "I don't think I ever could get used to being probed and prodded. I told my proctologist once: 'Hey, why don't you take me out to dinner and a movie sometime?'")

Cookie and Gerry Fleck

Sherri and Leslie Cabot

Hamilton and Meg Swan

Lesbian Dog Owners

Harlan Pepper

The Dog Show Commentators

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