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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?'")
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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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