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Drop dead gorgeous

Threat advisory: High - High risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

The battle between the good and the bad is bound to get ugly.

The local boosters of Mount Rose, Minnesota USA, proudly invite you to watch as their annual celebration of civic pride, wholesome achievement, teenage innocence and spirited camaraderie all go up in hilarious flames over the course of one nasty, back-stabbing beauty contest.

A wickedly colourful, twisted comedy, Drop dead gorgeous probes the heart of a small minnesota town where a fictional teen beauty pageant has unleashed a fury of very unladylike behaviour. Here in the hallowed American heartland - amidst the cow fields, pork sausage factories and Lutheran churches, going after the tiara is not just a fairy tale dream: it's all-out war.

Everyone involved in the contest - mothers, daughters, boyfriends - knows only one thing counts and it isn't talent, physical fitness, current events or sportsmanship. It's being number one, "Yah, you betcHa!" because in Mount Rose, you win any way you can.

Let's meet a few of the main contestants: enjoying a firm lead is Becky Leeman (Denise Richards), spoiled little rich girl, daughter of former winner Gladys Leeman (Kirstie Alley). Becky's main talent seems to be sanctimoniousness, sucking up to the judges with all the gusto that she - and her mother - can muster.

Close behind Becky Leeman is television anchorwoman-in-waiting Amber Atkins (Kirsten Dunst), the smart, sexy trailer park beauty who was raised on second-hand smoke and dreams of getting out of Mount Rose and away from her trailer home where she lives with her loving mother Annette (Ellen Barkin). If Diane Sawyer could make it out of a small town, so can Amber! This little lady shows promise - especially in underdog perseverance, tap dancing and beautifying stiffs at the local funeral parlour.

Joining Becky and Amber is an equally ambitious cadre of girls doing animal calls, lip-synching and interpretive sign language dances in sequins and spandex.

Also starring Allison Janney as Loretta, Sam McMurray as Lester Leeman, Mindy Sterling as Iris Clark, Brittany Murphy as Lisa Swenson, Amy Adams as Leslie Miller, Laurie A Sinclair as Michelle Johnson, Shannon Nelson as Tess Weinhaus, Tara Redepenning as Molly Howard, Sarah Stewart as Jenelle Betz, Alexandra Holden as Mary Johanson and Brooke Bushman as Tammy Curry. Written by Lona Williams, directed by Michael Patrick Jann.

Cinematic intelligence sources

Drop dead gorgeous official movie site
See also Happy, Texas, Little Miss Sunshine

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

A faux mockumentary.

The kings of the genre, of course, are the people behind This is Spinal Tap. The subject is held up to the light as only a true fan can, revealing all the cracks and flaws that are hidden by distance and moody lighting. Lona and Michael, who might or might not have personal experience in the beauty contest field, have tried hard and mostly succeeded but they have also fallen foul of feature fiction (which this is, but that's already too much intertextuality for one review).

Documentaries have a rule which cannot and must not be broken: all footage must be real. You can throw in some mood enhancing abstracts (see Chasing Buddha) and even a few recreations (dramatisations) as long as you label them as such. Anything else is akin to perjury. A documentary is statement of trust between the filmmaker and the audience. The former promises to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The latter promises to accept the former's promise and watch without the willing suspension of disbelief required for fiction. The documentary genre is built on mutual trust and understanding.

Drop dead gorgeous, as a mocko, must follow the same rule or become a fiction. Spinal Tap does this perfectly. Gorgeous does not. First off, there are several shots which could only be made if the film were fiction and there was time to reset and shoot from a different angle. Second off, the characters do not always behave in a life-like or consistent manner. Third off, the editing is generically fictive. Bad, bad, bad.

If you aren't a purist, however, Drop dead gorgeous is a really funny film about Redneck, USA, and the fight to not just keep up with the Joneses but tear down their house and trample all over it. Competitions like beauty pageants, talent quests and cheerleader tryouts do bring out the worst in stage mothers (and stage daughters) but Gorgeous takes it even further: Gladys Leeman is the mother of all stage mothers. Nothing, absolutely nothing is too good or too bad for her Becky.

Kirstie carries the weight of the film on her shoulder pads well, although she does get a bit over the top at times. Ellen, by contrast, skirts around the outside but does so with a trashiness bordering on scary. Denise's bitch is too two-dimensional until the talent section when you discover that 2 dimensions is actually a compliment. Kirsten is the actor who really makes this film with a rock solid iggerant redneck white trash blonde chick from Hell. Or Minnesota, if there's a difference.

*Shudders*

Whatever your feelings about beauty pageants, the USA or farm equipment used for sexual gratification, Drop dead gorgeous will have you rolling in the aisles (or on the floor of your lounge room, since this is now a video release). It's smart, it's witty and it takes the piss. Hoopla!

See Happy, Texas for a different take on beauty pageants.