Part of Weekend Classics: Animal Kingdom
At the prestigious Mayflower Dog Show, a “documentary film crew” captures the excitement and tension displayed by the eccentric participants in the outrageously hilarious satire from the team behind THIS IS SPINAL TAP. This biting send-up exposes the wondrously diverse dog owners who travel from all over America to showcase their four-legged contenders. Mild-mannered salesman Gerry Fleck (co-writer Eugene Levy) and his vivacious wife Cookie (Catherine O’Hara), happily prepare their Norwich Terrier, while shop owner Harlan Pepper (director Christopher Guest) hopes his Bloodhound wins top prize. As two upwardly mobile attorneys (Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock) anxiously ready their neurotic Weimaraner and an ecstatically happy gay couple (Michael McKean and John Michael Higgins) dote on their tiny Shih Tzu, inept commentator Buck Laughlin (Fred Willard) vainly attempts to provide colorful tidbits about each breed.
“Guest seems to know just how far he can stretch reality without losing the crucial texture of verisimilitude. This is a comedy even cat lovers might adore.” —David Ansen, Newsweek “A parody of the world of purebred dog competitions, where the owners have even more character than their four-legged, button-eyed friends, it's a marvelously accomplished ensemble comedy: Every actor makes an impression, and the picture trots along at a terrier clip.” —Stephanie Zacharek, Salon “The actors improvising from a bare-bones screenplay…riff off one another like jazz musicians to create what may be the cleverest on-the-spot caricatures since the heyday of Mike Nichols and Elaine May.” —Stephen Holden, New York Times
