Best In Show

Starring: Parker Posey

Directed by: Christopher Guest

RS: Not Rated

2000 Comedy

Best In Show will nip at the funny bone of all of us who get pumped by Christopher Guest in his mockumentary mode. You know who you are. You can still quote lines from Guest's 1997 gem, Waiting for Guffman, in which he played Corky St. Clair, the closeted amateur director from Missouri, who dreams of Broadway and sells Remains of the Day lunchboxes. You bought the new DVD, with extras, of Rob Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap to watch Guest as lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel. But the real Guest fix comes in this laugh-a-minute look at the zanies who converge on Philadelphia for the Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show. Director Guest, who co-wrote Best in Show with the invaluable Eugene Levy, plays Harlan Pepper, a fly-fishing shop owner who dresses butch but wears his heart on his sleeve for Hubert, his bloodhound. Levy plays Gerry Fleck, a salesman whose wife, Cookie (the priceless Catherine O'Hara), has slept with more men than her terrier, Winky, has hairs. Guest gathers many Guffman vets, including Michael McKean as a gay man with a Shih Tzu, Parker Posey as a neurotic wife whose kinky sex habits are disturbing her Weimaraner Beatrice, and Fred Willard as the dog-show host who knows diddly about dogs. Some may dis Best as too slapdash and inconsequential to warrant a feature-length film. Bite me. Waggish fun like this is too good to miss.

PETER TRAVERS