Drop Dead Gorgeous and Dick ? two highly underrated comedies

Greetings,

I thought I would shift some of the recent topics back to why I fell in love with Kiki ? her movies. Yes, before her beauty and before her down-to-earth personality, it was her acting that first caught my eye.

Let?s set the way-back machine for the first week of July 1999. Theatres are showing The Sixth Sense, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Runaway Bride, American Pie, and Wild Wild West.

To the world, Kirsten Dunst was known as the little girl who was a scene-stealer in Interview With A Vampire and Little Women, was one of the stars of Jumanji and Small Soldiers, and was in a couple of made-for TV movies. A few serious movie people might also know her from The Virgin Suicides (It was shown at Cannes in May of 1999, but was not in widespread release until May of 2000).

A month later, in early August, she was appearing on 2,700 screens in the US. Drop Dead Gorgeous was in widespread release on July 23rd, and Dick less than two weeks later.

I think these are two very-funny, very highly underrated comedies. Both are spoofs ? one on the documentary-making process, and the other on real-life events. Satire is probably my favorite type of comedy, and I really like comedies.

Drop Dead Gorgeous is a very intelligent spoof in the same vein as This is Spinal Tap or Best in Show. The film is centered around the 50th anniversary of a teenage beauty pageant, where the filmmakers travel to an obscure Midwestern town to film the events leading up to the pageant. The film shares its style with This is Spinal Tap in that both are filmed as a documentary of the making of another documentary. It is as if the final documentary would be made from bits of the footage that we see ? allowing us to see all of the ?outtakes? or otherwise behind-the-scenes footage that would otherwise be cut out. This technique is very effective since it provides many laughs in the form of humans being their natural, imperfect selves.

It becomes apparent early that the contest will really boil down to two contestants, Amber ? the nice, girl-next-door who lives with her mom in a trailer park, and Becky ? the daughter of the richest family in town. Amber is played by the effervescent Kirsten Dunst, who adopts an excellent Fargo-esque accent for the role. The small, Minnesota town becomes the perfect backdrop for the filmmakers to come up with some wild supporting characters, with which this film is rich. In fact, Amber is the only ?normal? person in the whole movie. Her world is full of bizarre characters, which the filmmakers cast wonderfully. Every performance is a hilariously over-the-top. Becky is played perfectly by the lovely Denise Richards ? a phony, snotty, rich brat ? so the audience quickly begins to root for Amber. The two moms are also detailed characters ? Amber?s mom Annette is classic trailer-trash, well-played by Ellen Barkin. Becky?s mom is the polar opposite ? a rich, snob who is involved in the pageant more for herself than for her daughter. Probably the best character of all is Annette?s best friend Loretta, played spot-on by the underappreciated Allison Janney

Dick is a very creative alternative view to the Watergate scandal, with two, fifteen year-old girls (Betsy and Arlene) affecting the destinies of nations. The film takes place in the early seventies, giving the filmmaker?s a lot to work with both in terms of the music and the outrageous clothing of the period. Many of the plot ideas were taken from the real scandal and also borrow heavily from the film All the President?s Men. In fact, many of the gags are a direct spoof of something that appeared in that movie, so being familiar with that movie would help one understand some of the humor and plot direction. However, one of the real beauties of this film is that all of the real-life ?facts? are there. As director Andrew Fleming points out on the DVD ? there is really no proof that things DIDN?T happen as portrayed in this film.

Dan Hedaya?s performance as Nixon is nothing short of awesome and helps hold the film together. The real stars of the show, however, are Betsy and Arlene. We are attracted to these two as they seem impervious to the corruption and scandal that is constantly surrounding them. We can see how much fun they are having and want to be in there having fun with them. Apparently they had such a blast making the movie that this shines through on their performances. Again, they are surrounded by a rich cast of over-the-top character performances, including many Saturday Night Live veterans. Kirsten shines as the ditzy, clueless Betsy, and we also see what a real beauty she is becoming.

The young Kirsten really shines in these two movies ? proving to the world that there is basically no acting task that she cannot handle. In both movies she is playing a character within one year of her actual age. Her associates are played by actresses that are much older ? as much as 11 years older !

The other thing I really like about these two comedies is that there is no boy-girl stuff ? they are both pure comedies. There is none of the sexual tension/frustration associated with a romantic comedy. Not that I do not like romantic comedies, I do, but these are different.

Drop Dead Gorgeous made up its 10 million dollar budget with a little extra while Dick only made up about half of its 13 million-dollar budget. Part of the problem with Dick was in its marketing ? while the stars were two ditzy teenage girls, much of the humor was quite adult. I think a lot of the humor was lost due to young people missing some of the humor, and adults not actually seeing the movie.

Comedy is arguably the most difficult form of film to make, especially in predicting how well it will be received by audiences. The best comedians have all had their share of total disasters ? just look at Jim Carrey?s or Ben Stiller?s filmography. In any case, I find these two unsung comic gems are the funniest movies from Kirsten?s archive, and both also show some of her talents at playing different characters.

Since then, her other movies that were comedies have all had major sections of their plot involving a romantic aspect, to varying degrees. I also have a hard time imagining her EVER making another comedy without a romantic angle.

In any case, I think she is brilliant in comedies, and I am very much looking forward to her next one ? How To Lose Friends And Alienate People!.

Cheers,
- rsvpjrdot

"Competing for the title of Minnesota?s American Teen Princess sure was exciting, but I never could have won without my St. Paul Pork Products."