June 11th, 2025

The phrase ‘timeless’ gets thrown around a lot when talking about film. Things like The Godfather, Beauty & the Beast, or Blade Runner have never gone out of fashion. They live on, both because of their awards acclaim and cult status among film buffs. And to a certain extent they are timeless, they have stood through and found new audiences as they age, all of them spawning sequels and remakes to spin off into a web of IP that lives on to this day.

So it’s nice to go down to the local theater here in Richmond, VA and catch something that’s decidedly not timeless on the big screen. Something that proudly wears it’s sense of humor, as well as the state of the world loudly on its shoulders as it unwinds before us. Christpher Guest’s 2000 mockumentary is off puttingly charming in a way we rarely see these days. It feels like a spiritual sequel to Guest’s work on This is Spinal Tap, which shared in its mockumentary approach. But so much about what makes this film charming is an almost dry portrayal of life in America in the late 90s. Cellphones had barely begun to exist, credit card companies had to be called over the phone, and the set piece of the film, the Westminster Dog Show was in it’s 125th year.

The film introduces a collection of competitors and their canines, each hoping to snag the top spot for themselves. And each with their idiosyncrasies surrounding themselves and their furry friends. The obnoxious suburbanites who believe their dog needs a specific bee toy to win the cup, an affable southerner with his friendly and handsome bloodhound, the Floridians who made they trip up with their terrier only to have to sleep in the storage closet. Each gets their own time to shine, their own jokes, and each feels real to a degree, like someone you might know. It’s this magic trick that the film pulls off best.

But the best couples by far are the two queer couples, with Sheri Ann Cabot (Jennifer Coolidge) and her dog’s trainer Christy Cummings (Jane Lynch) portraying a lesbian couple having an affair under the nose of Cabot’s unaware husband. And Scott Dunlan (John Michael Higgins) and Stefan Vanderhoof (Michael McKean) yucking it up as a not too stereotypical gay couple. The portrayal of these LGBTQ+ families ascends Best in Show to a point that was unexpected in 2000 when it came out. It’s honestly a little unexpected today. These characters feel real and relatable in a way queer characters don’t often get, and yet they’re both genuinely funny. Not in anyway that’s crass or offensive or even that barely borders on the edge of a PG-13 rating. Just like the rest of the cast, they are written as people first, with their own punchlines to say, as opposed to being the butts of the joke. You could certainly do worse viewing this Pride Month.

It also helps that this film is a comedy. It’s not an action comedy, or a fantasy comedy, the budget is a reported 10 million, the kind of money that could barely pay for a prop gun let alone a laser beam or an explosion. It’d be nice to be able to go to my normal multiplex and see something that has jokes in it, without it devolving into a shootout or a heist. Just people going about their day in a funny way, with jokes and punchlines and bits. And if you can throw someone like Ed Begley Jr. or Fred Willard into the mix? I’ll probably go see it twice.

4/5