Best In Show

I'm going to lose alot of friends for saying this, but The Office doesn’t impress me.

Partly because it’s rude, but also because there were so many other shows in that style before it. (The Larry Sanders Show, The Day Today and various episodes of The Comic Strip for example)


Best In Show is another one, (albeit a movie) but with the distinction that it has a far more positive feel-good factor.

Sure – the first 15 minutes are solidly jokes about sex, and some of the subtlety fails when the two stereotype lesbians are ‘revealed’ to be just that, but aside from that, this is a film that just oozes fun.

There are no stars either. We get introduced in mockumentary-fashion to several dog-owners, all hoping that their precious pet will win the big upcoming dog-show.


It’s a slow-burner alright, (over the course of the film they barely even meet each other), and it takes time to get to know the individual competitors and their foibles, but this has the advantage that you really can pick your favourite characters and root for them, with no idea at all who will win.

My favourites were the couple who consistently projected all their problems onto their dog, and the scene where the woman lost her temper in a pet shop was funny in such an unpleasant way.

Top marks however have to go to Fred Willard and Jim Piddock as live TV show commentators Buck Laughlin and Trevor Beckwith respectively. Over-excited Willard gets no end of chronic one-liners here, but they’re magnified many times over by the quiet long-suffering Piddock underplaying his public embarrassment so well.


Buck (on the left): "I'd hate to go on a date with Judge Edie Franklin and have her judge me, that'd be no fun."


Buck: "And to think that in some countries these dogs are eaten."


Buck: [after Beatrice the dog jumps up on the show judge] "He went for her like she was made outta ham!"

If there’s a downside, it would be the temptation to dislike these characters for living in their own little worlds, but the film offers far more pleasure if you take a genuine interest, and marvel at the diverse variety of damaged people on this planet.

Available here.