IT'S `DROP DEAD' DREADFUL.Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic Mean-spirited and obvious, the beauty pageant satire ``Drop Dead Gorgeous'' isn't going to win any prizes for congeniality or, more importantly, talent. Full of low humor and characters that don't remotely resemble human beings, this movie is ultimately every bit as shallow as the bubble-brained contestants it lampoons. When you think about it, the world needs a spoof on beauty pageants about as much as Miss America Miss America annually selected most beautiful young woman in America. [Am. Hist.: Allen, 56–57] See : Beauty, Feminine Miss America winner of beauty contest; femininity high among virtues desired. [Am. Hist. needs another layer of pancake foundation. Michael Ritchie's merciless sendup, ``Smile,'' did the job fine back in 1975, and subsequent years have brought a slew of ``Saturday Night Live'' skits, talk-show jokes and inferior imitations. (An exception: Beth Henley's ``Miss Firecracker,'' which had its charms.) ``Drop Dead Gorgeous'' adds absolutely nothing to the genre, which is somewhat surprising since its writer, Lona Williams Lona Willams is an American television producer, writer and actor. Williams was raised in Rosemount, Minnesota where her father, Les, was a middle school math teacher. , was once a pageant contestant herself. The movie is set in the small, Lutheran-dominated town of Mount Rose, Minn., where everybody says, ``Yah, you betcha'' and eats lutefisk lu·te·fisk also lut·fisk n. A traditional Scandinavian dish prepared by soaking air-dried cod in a lye solution for several weeks before skinning, boning, and boiling it, a process that gives the dish its characteristic gelatinous consistency. for lunch and casseroles for dinner. The movie pokes relentless fun at the flat accents and bland lifestyles with a sense of smug superiority that was absent from the Coen brothers' ``Fargo,'' which had the decency (and the acumen) to populate its world with interesting, colorful and, above all, recognizable characters. Here, it's a pageant of cliches. There's the stage mother, Gladys Leeman (Kirstie Alley Kirsten Louise Alley (born January 12, 1951) is an American Emmy Award winning actress best known for her role in the TV show Cheers, where she played Rebecca Howe from 1987-1993, winning an Emmy as the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for 1991. ), a former Miss Teen Princess intent on having her spoiled daughter, Becky (Denise Richards), follow in her footsteps. Becky's chief competition is Amber (Kirsten Dunst Kirsten[1] Caroline Dunst (born April 30, 1982) is an American actress, known for her roles in (for which she received a Golden Globe nomination), The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette, and Bring It On ), a sweet, smart trailer-park beauty who - and this is certainly a new twist - practices her tap dancing while attending to corpses at the local mortuary. The drama of the Miss Teen Princess contest is captured by a documentary film team, which gives ``Drop Dead Gorgeous'' the same basic structure of classic satires like ``This Is Spinal Tap'' and ``Waiting for Guffman Waiting for Guffman is a musical mockumentary starring, co-written and directed by Christopher Guest that was released in 1997. It stars a cast of actors who have come to form an acting troupe that has appeared in a series of Guest-directed mockumentaries. .'' Here, though, writer Williams and first-time director Michael Patrick Jann (from MTV's ``The State'') go almost entirely for low humor and banal bromides. Thus, the movie ridicules an array of easy targets - the empty-headed beauty contestants, trailer-park denizens, Lutherans and ``retards.'' There's a scene of mass vomiting, a shot of a young girl falling on a balance beam and landing square on her crotch crotch n. The angle or region of the angle formed by the junction of two parts or members, such as two branches, limbs, or legs. and a talent routine where a girl sings ``Can't Take My Eyes Off You'' while dancing around the stage with an effigy EFFIGY, crim. law. The figure or representation of a person. 2. To make the effigy of a person with an intent to make him the object of ridicule, is a libel. (q.v.) Hawk. b. 1, c. 7 3, s. 2 14 East, 227; 2 Chit. Cr. Law, 866. 3. of Christ on the cross. (And she's the winner.) Dunst (the only survivor here among the cast) perfectly sums up the movie toward the end, saying, ``The whole thing is just kind of sad and lame at the same time.'' Amen. THE FACTS The film: ``Drop Dead Gorgeous'' (PG-13; crude humor, sex-related material and language). The stars: Kirstie Alley, Kirsten Dunst, Denise Richards, Ellen Barkin Ellen Rona Barkin (born April 16, 1954) is an Emmy Award-winning and Golden Globe Award-nominated American actress. Biography Early life Barkin was born in the Bronx, New York to a chemical salesman and a hospital administrator at Jamaica Hospital, and raised in . Behind the scenes: Directed by Michael Patrick Jann. Screenplay by Lona Williams. Released by New Line Pictures. Running time: One hour, 36 minutes. Playing: Citywide. Our rating: One star. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Mindy Sterling Mindy Sterling (born July 11, 1953 in Paterson, New Jersey) is an American actress. Although she had worked in the industry for over 25 years, she only began to truly garner attention after playing Frau Farbissina, the diminutive and domineering Germanic cohort of Dr. , left, Kirstie Alley, Denise Richards and Sam McMurray are among the beauty pageant-obsessed in ``Drop Dead Gorgeous.'' |
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