It's 1995, and the fictional town of Mount Rose, Minnesota is gearing up for its sole claim to fame: the annual Sarah Rose Cosmetics Mount Rose American Teen Princess Pageant. Kirsten Dunst is optimistic teenager Amber Atkins, who's entering the pageant to follow in the footsteps of her idol, Diane Sawyer, and her mother Annette (Ellen Barkin), a former winner who's now an alcoholic, chain-smoking trailer park resident whose neighbour is Loretta (Allison Janney). Meanwhile, Amber's main rival in the pageant is Denise Richards as Rebecca Leeman, whose mother Gladys (Kirstie Alley) is another former winner but one now running the pageant and married to the richest man in town. The girls' battle to be crowned the winner, and their town's efforts to pull the pageant off again (albeit exclusively for its own interests) now unfolds in a viciously funny satirical, mockumentary format.
Drop Dead Gorgeous flopped when first released in 1999, only just recouping its $10 million budget in the US, but slowly yet steadily it attracted fans online until those fans became a cult following; thankfully it's now available to stream online. Writer Lona Williams, who came from a beauty pageant background, and director Michael Patrick Jann apparently had quite a few disagreements during production but they clearly shared a desire to satirise the pageant industry with all its pitfalls as well as small-town American parochialism and xenophobia. The result had me truly in stitches throughout. It's definitely too dark a comedy for all tastes, but that's just the brand of humour that tickles my fancy most. Beyond that, Williams' plotting is consistently logical and Jann's direction never lets the pace wane; I think they brought the best out of each other, despite everything.
Keep your eyes peeled for Brittany Murphy (RIP) and, in her film debut, Amy Adams, as two other pageant contestants, Mindy Sterling (aka Frau Farbissina from the Austin Powers trilogy) as Gladys' committed right-hand woman, Matt Malloy and Mike McShane as judges John Dough and Harold Vilmes, Will Sasso as Harold's mentally handicapped brother Hank, and Adam West as himself hosting the pageant. Drop Dead Gorgeous is, to me, drop dead hilarious.
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