If any target is ripe for a mockumentary,
it is a teenage beauty pageant. Phoniness
from and condescension towards the contestants
is in full display, with wooden production
numbers and numbing conformity added to the
mix.
The best setting for this satire would have
been 'the Nationals', by which time the
contestants would all have been beautiful,
but cynically hardened. Instead, the film
takes place mostly in a small Midwestern town,
where a pageant representative to State is
chosen from a handful of contestants. The
mockumentary spreads its cruel fire to not
only the one phony entrant, but to the
well-intentioned as well, and even the town's
Americana citizens.
"Drop Dead Gorgeous" takes sadistic pleasure
from one character in particular, an overweight,
retarded young man. Another shamelessly
exploited target is the anorexic winner from
last year's local pageant. Her early scenes
are funny, but by the time she is wheeled out
to mime "Don't Cry Out Loud" the joke has long
run out of gas. The pageant judges (and targets)
include a very unattractive, perhaps autistic
woman, and a nervous man presented as a child
molestor due to his obsessions with the teenage
beauties.
The film does a little better when concentrating
on the rival between the 'good girl' contestant
(Kirsten Dunst) and the 'bad girl' entrant
(Denise Richards) who just happens to be the
daughter of the shallow pageant director (Kirstie
Alley). Dunst is very likable, as is her trailer
park trash mom (Ellen Barkin) and her man-hungry
best friend (Allison Janney). But the few scenes
of warmth between credible characters, as well
as the occasional gag that works (we like the
stools with fresh paint), fail to overcome the
misdirected cruelties of the screenplay.
Probably the best pageant send-up is "Smile",
an obscure comedy from 1975. Second place
could be "The Freshman", which has Bert Parks
(remember him?) singing the Miss America theme
to a giant lizard. As for mockumentaries,
stick with the original, "This is Spinal Tap". (34/100)
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