From my favorite movies..

Don't listen to the negative reviews

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Very funny movie, with such good humor. Very funny movie, with such good humor.

This movie is grossly underrated. Will Sasso's Hank alone makes it a comedy classic. Ellen Barkin and Allison Janney are amazing. When Ellen first appears with the beer can fused to her hand, I lost it. The entire town interview scene is just superb. The town pageant from Hank's antics at the car to the conclusion is just perfect. The movie slogs a bit at the end (like the production ran out of money), but what comes before is just golden. Terrific cast, both up and coming - Kirsten Durst, early Brittany Murphy, Denise Richards and experienced actors - Sam McMurray, Mindy Sterling ("Scott!!!), Nora Dunn. Just watch it.

Drop Dead Gorgeous is an incorrigible satire that overcomes the doomed reputation of its genre to be one of the funniest films I've seen in a long time. Even when it's well done, satire tends to be more clever than comedic…and it usually isn't that well done in the first place. This movie spectacularly succeeds by not only offering up sharp takes on fairly obvious and easy targets, but also delivering delightful bits of lunacy that will make you laugh at everything from horrific eating disorders to physical mutilation.The story is about a documentary film crew that goes to the small Minnesota town of Mount Rose to cover the local qualifying pageant for the America's Teen Princess competition. They film and interview the pageant organizers, young contestants and their friends and family. The crew is also around to record the deaths and maimings that surround the pageant and always seem to benefit Becky Leeman (Denise Richards), the jaded and two-faced daughter of Gladys Leeman (Kirstie Alley), the pageant organizer, a former pageant winner and a stage mom desperate to relive her past glory. The only real competitor to Becky, at least the only one that luckily remains unharmed, is Amber Atkins (Kirsten Dunst). She's the good hearted trailer park girl who squeezes in tap dancing practice during her two jobs, one in the school cafeteria and the other putting make up on stiffs in the town funeral parlor.As you might expect, a lot of the satire of Drop Dead Gorgeous is aimed at the natives of Minnesota and the classic tropes of small town life. It's reflected best in some of the pageant contestants. There's the slutty cheerleader (Amy Adams), the drama club chick (Laurie Sinclair), the tomboy of ambiguous sexuality (Brooke Bushman) and the fat girl who loves her dog a little too much (Shannon Nelson). But these filmmakers then compliment those fairly obvious characters with some wonderfully off kilter contestants. One young woman is a future fag hag (Brittany Murphy), another lives her life as a tribute to her deaf mother (Sarah Stewart) and another is a white girl adopted and raised by Japanese parents that are pathetically desperate to assimilate into the good ol' U S of A.By adding bizarre and outrageous bits that are only trying to make you laugh, it makes the satiric and darker outlook of the film go down a lot smoother. Many satires fall into the trap of being self righteous or exploitative but because there's a different and separate layer of comedy running through the story, Drop Dead Gorgeous is just plain hilarious. As you react to the crazy, non-satiric jokes, it becomes easier to appreciate the humor underlying the satire. And since the non-satiric comedy is more over-the-top and potentially offensive than the satiric moments, it never feels like the film is being judgmental about these characters or their dreams.Helping things out is a cast that's as good as the material they're given to work with. Kirsten Dunst and Amy Adams are the highlights, both absolutely adorable and just close enough to being realistic to give their characters that extra oomph. Ellen Barkin is also great as Amber's "rode hard and put away wet" mother and Allison Janney almost steals the show as her outspoken and cougarish trailer park neighbor. The other actors are also very funny and screenwriter Lona Williams gives one of the best performances in the movie without saying a word. Denise Richards is…well, she's Denise Richards. If you've seen her in other films, you know what to expect. She's good looking and makes an effort, but there's just not a lot going on.Drop Dead Gorgeous is a movie about teenage beauty pageants that's so funny and bold, even a lot of high school boys could enjoy it…and I'm talking about heterosexual high school boys. I'm not sure there's any higher praise that I can give.

Drop Dead Gorgeous is directed by Michael Patrick Jann and stars Kirstie Alley, Ellen Barkin, Denise Richards, Brittany Murphy and Kirsten Dunst. Written and produced by Lona Williams it's shot in a mockumentary format and follows the contestants in a beauty pageant called the Sarah Rose Cosmetics Mount Rose American Teen Princess Pageant, held in the small town of Mount Rose, Minnesota. It seems that some parents, and some girls, will stop at nothing to win this particular contest.It's pretty evident quite early on in Jann's film that this is no ordinary look at Middle America. This is biting satire that pokes the soft underbelly of those so fascinated by beauty pageants out there in the good old U.S. of A. The roll call of gags, both visually and orally, reads like one of Lucifer's best of lists; featuring anorexia, amputees, burns victims, perversion and Jesus gets a kicking too. Yet it's not shock tactics that are the order of the day, the writing from Williams (notably once a Minnesota pageant queen herself) is very aware and steers safely away from charges of crudeness. Sure, some things may offend, but the film is structured in such a way (the docu team angle is excellently realised) it's all very hard to take seriously: and rightly so.The cast perhaps unsurprisingly are mostly female, what guys are involved are either perverts, dunces, weirdos or dead! In the Mother corners we have Kirstie Alley & Ellen Barkin, with both ladies wonderfully rising to the tongue in cheek occasion, and representing the daughters are trailer trash Kirsten Dunst and spoiled rich kid beauty Denise Richards. Allison Janney provides wise cracking-man hungry-comic relief, while the petite line of contestants contains the likes of Brittany Murphy and Amy Adams. All do good work for the spiky script, where the film falls down, however, is with it's rather pointless last 20 to 30 minutes. Possibly it's down to inexperience on the part of the makers that the film loses its way? We have the big contest shenanigans and a kicker of a twist to boot, but then have to suffer a number of convo's and time fillers that aren't really needed. We can accept Richards looking about 5 years too old for this particular contest, but half hour of film speaking to god knows who? We can not.Still, it's a fun in a sickly kind of way movie, one that is bold and lit up by some very rewarding acting performances. 6.5/10