Netflix Daily Pick: Doggone Big Laughs in ‘Best in Show’ (2000)

Best in Show is a 200 mockumentary about a group of colorful characters who come participate in an annual dog show.

Today’s Netflix pick is a really funny comedy from a director who practically invented the genre and made hit after hit tweaking the formula. Starring an large ensemble cast, including Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara, the sheer absurdity of the movie makes it already something fun to watch, but the fact that it’s based on and pokes loving fun at a very real way of life for some is the icing. It’s Best in Show and it’s what you’re watching tonight. Here’s why.

THE STORY: Directed by and starring Christopher Guest, it follows several people from all around the United States who are traveling to Philadelphia for the annual Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show. They are a wildly diverse group, most couples, who have made their dogs the very center of their lives and as such, have become obsessed with seeing them win the highest honor. From uptight upper class yuppie types (Parker Posey, Michael Hitchcock) to a campy gay could (John Michael Higgins, Michael McKean), we see people in utter dedication to their pets and in seeing them take the top prize as they prepare for and travel to the arena.

WHY YOU NEED TO WATCH: The mockumentary is truly one of the funniest sub-genres in the movies and when it’s done right, is fodder for some of the biggest laughs you’ll have watching a movie. Guest, who kicked off the the whole thing with the now iconic This is Spinal Tap (1984), reinvented it again with Waiting for Guffman (1996), putting together a collection of improv performers who would come to work together in a few films, including this one. With everyone delivering, look for a particularly gut-busting turn from Fred Willard as the show’s color commentary who apparently knows nothing about dogs. It’s just one of many truly good bits in a films packed with good bits. Guaranteed to make you laugh, it’s streaming on Netflix right now.