Film

Best in Show

Name: Best in Show
Genre: Comedy
Released: 2000
Cast: Bob Balaban, Jennifer Coolidge, Christopher Guest, John Michael Higgins, Michael Hitchcock

Christopher Guest's mockumentary follows five wildly specific dog owners and their equally specific dogs through the Mayflower Kennel Club Show. It's a deadpan ensemble comedy built almost entirely from improvisation, gentle in tone but merciless in detail — every character is an exact, loving caricature of a type of person you have definitely met. Best for anyone who finds humans funnier the more sincerely they behave.

TMDb rating

6.9

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But Rougher and scrappier than Best in Show; the improv occasionally sags before it lands.

A Mighty Wind2003

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But Softer-edged and more melancholy than the others — less pure comedy, more bittersweet nostalgia.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

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A mockumentary sitcom populated entirely by small-town obsessives who take their tiny corner of bureaucracy as seriously as anyone here takes a dog show.

But Six seasons is a big commitment, and the first one is famously the weakest.

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Guest turns the same lens on a low-budget film cast convinced they're about to win Oscars — vanity and self-delusion played with total straight-faced commitment.

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Drop Dead Gorgeous1999

A beauty-pageant mockumentary with the same small-town competitive mania, pushed into darker, more absurd territory than Guest ever goes.

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Wet Hot American Summer2001no page yet

An ensemble improv comedy from the same era with a similarly deep bench of oddballs, each given room to be absurd in their own specific way.

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Documentary Now!2015

An anthology series that parodies specific documentary styles episode by episode, sharing Best in Show's love of deadpan self-important talking heads.

But Each episode spoofs a real documentary you may not know, so some jokes land better than others.

Isle of Dogs2018

Same formalist, deadpan comic sensibility and canine obsession, transposed from live-action mockumentary into animated fable.

Wes Anderson's stop-motion adventure shares Best in Show's exact deadpan register and obsessive love of dogs, just rebuilt as a wholly different genre and medium.

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