Hi everyone! I’m @ralter, and I’ll be providing clueless color commentary for BEST IN SHOW by Guest & Co. (see what i did there? a rhyme!) for #vulturemovieclub

gotta love a Friday Night Movie Club

The neurotics in the therapist’s office are the perfect framing device to bring you into this world, where dog shows are the HIGHEST stakes competition imaginable. we have to get on their level.

According to Eugene Levy, Winky the Terrier's full registered name in the movie is “Champion Thank You Neil Sedaka”

This Winky Home Decor. GOOPED. @strategist guide WHEN.

"i was considered by some to be quite the casanova myself."

“I was born with two left feet.” Levy co-wrote the movie with Guest, and had the left feet thing figured out before they even decided he would be married to Catherine O'Hara in their first big on-screen comedy couple role

Bob Balaban’s got himself a Dandie Dinmont Terrier here. They’re really the Bob Balaban of dogs.

Guest loves details so much, and the specificity of his worlds serves his comedy really well and keeps the improv sharp. Gives the actors clear games. He can list off fishing lures or nuts all the live-long day.

Hubert's puppy picture destroys me. SPEAKING OF: share pics of your pups watching along!

Ok, quick read of the room. Are you:

In typical Christopher Guest fashion, the dialogue was entirely improvised. They filmed 60 hours of footage based off a 15-page outline #vulturemovieclub

i want what they have

bow to the queen. THE scene stealer in a movie full of scene stealers.

“We met at Starbucks. Not at the same Starbucks but we saw each other at different Starbucks across the street from each other.” brings a tear to my eye. the greatest cinematic love story ever told. casablanca could never. #vulturemovieclub

This scene always reminds me of You’ve Got Mail, with its iMac meet-cute and its Starbucks vision of late 90s yuppiedom.

Parker Posey got actual adult braces to play Meg. you just KNOW these ppl would be all up on that smile direct club invisalign in 2020

"We were so lucky to have been raised amongst catalogs" = literally me as a kid when the American Girl catalog came every month even tho i couldn't afford one.

Christopher Guest talking in his Bloodhound voice while scrunching its wrinkles and its squishes is ASMR.

#vulturemovieclub

Did you know: Eugene Levy wrote the “God Loves a Terrier” song. that TALENT.

And the cast all used to harmonize for fun between scenes because John Michael Higgins is good at harmonic arrangements, as catherine o'hara and eugene levy told us https://www.vulture.com/2020/08/catherine-ohara-eugene-levy-interview-best-in-show-at-20.html

"fantastic friendship." "family dynamic." christy and sheri ann really did say 'stream folklore' huh #vulturemovieclub

DID YOU KNOW: Christopher Guest met Jane Lynch directing her in this Frosted Flakes commercial, and gave her her break in best in show from that:

I like that Kellogg’s was really gunning for the adult alternative comedy market for Frosted Flakes there. hmm.

They say don’t work with kids or animals. I love how Christopher Guest was like "I will work with literally 100 dogs AND we won't have a script" #vulturemovieclub

in my headcanon Tiger King is chaotic evil and Harlan Pepper is lawful good, does that make sense

i live for Meg's travel poncho #vulturemovieclub

the airport scene: Beatrice snaps at someone AND there's a busy bee freak-out? even improvised movies can have foreshadowing #vulturemovieclub

Who is the more iconic Weimaraner-inspired artiste?

Spinal Tap and Best in Show take place in the same universe, CONFIRMED. it's the Christopher Guest Cinematic Universe. CGCU. #vulturemovieclub

Larry Miller is so, so hilarious as Cookie's ex in this scene. his "they always jump" spiel is so dark - and this movie was PG! #vulturemovieclub

Eugene Levy's delivery of the line "your luscious melon breasts" lives in my head rent free. #vulturemovieclub

"Don't look him in the eye! It challenges him!"

this is so dark sided.

WHAT ARE THE ODDS jennifer coolidge was inspired by this to call norway "norwegia" in the hilary duff cinematic masterpiece CINDERELLA STORY? anyone?

in the a.m. philadelphia scene we learn that the poodle's registered name is "Rhapsody in White" but her name is "Butch" and "Butch is a bitch" #vulturemovieclub

Winky in a hat to bless your timeline.

the old man who plays Jennifer Coolidge's husband's final imdb credit was a posthumous appearance in Air Buddies. the guy had a lane and he liked to stick to it!

oy, your heart just goes out to Cookie and Gerry Fleck here. this scene also sets up STAKES. this is an UNDERDOG story. we whip from the fancy poodle party to the storage closet. they've got the furthest to climb.

gouda break! #vulturemovieclub

Catherine O'Hara telling us about all of Cookie's ex-lovers filming Best in Show: "I remember it was kind of spooky. They were so serious about what we had done, and I’d stand there like, 'Yeah, yeah,' but inside, I was like, 'Oh my god, you are scaring me.'”

All of us when the pandemic is over and we’ve forgotten how to socialize:

you can tell scott and his euphemism stefan have brought agnes and tyrone up in a very happy home

the song stefan sings to Tyrone on the phone is "Barbara Allen". was this the germ of folk music that led to A Mighty Wind? #vulturemovieclub

AND JUST LIKE THAT it's the Mayflower Kennel Club dog show! i forgot how early it happens in the movie - we're only halfway through, and from here on out the whole thing belongs to Fred Willard #vulturemovieclub

It really is Willard's movie. he's like the energizer bunny of improv. he just goes and goes and goes and it's all so funny you can't believe it's off the cuff. he was the GOAT.

BUSY BEE FREAKOUT!!

Fred Willard and Jim Piddock filmed ALL their stuff in two days. Willard was told to do ZERO research into dog shows, and it shows, in the best possible way.

circling back to that Busy Bee scene, Beatrice the dog is real living proof that acting is re-acting

it's so fun to watch Fred Willard crack himself up, and Jim Piddock just keeping that stoney business face. #vulturemovieclub

this scene is the Unauthorized Amy Cooper Story

when someone tells me to "drink water"

this is a John Michael Higgins walk appreciation post. he brings the it-factor #vulturemovieclub

"The miniature schnauzer. How do they make it miniature?"
"What the devil is going on?"
"They breed 'em small? You think they’d wanna breed ‘em bigger, like grapefruits or watermelons."

"That handler looks familiar to me." -Fred Willard aka Buck Laughlin is casually another Friend of Cookie #vulturemovieclub

foreshadowing! payoff! beatrice is OUT!

fun fact: “He went after her like she was made outta ham” is @heybonanos favorite line in the movie #vulturemovieclub

"Half butter half salt" is a psychotic way to order popcorn and if movie theaters ever are safe to go to again i am ABSOLUTELY ordering that way. #vulturemovieclub

“She looks like a cocktail waitress on an oil rig.”
"Look at her handler, that is one happy fella."

the whole cast is DUNKING on Christy but it's just cause they're intimidated.

WHO SAID dog shows aren't real sports

I love how the movie builds to Sheri Ann and Christy's kiss - on that hotel tv with Stefan and Scott Statler and Waldorfing thru the scene. #vulturemovieclub

i can watch this movie a thousand times and i'll STILL laugh at catherine tripping on nothing and then doing that wiggly walk #vulturemovieclub

the Nancy Kerrigan of the dog world, truly.

But then when she tells Gerry that he's going to show Winky, there's a real sincerity and intensity there in that close-up. it's the climax of the movie - best in show! and Gerry has two left feet!

JOHN MICHAEL HIGGINS APPRECIATION POST PT 2. he looks like a vegas magician.

best line of the movie:

tense!!!

IS THE BEST IN SHOW JUDGE MAJOR GARLAND BRIGGS FROM TWIN PEAKS?? it's GARLAND and HARLAN. #vulturemovieclub

fun fact: Christopher Guest wanted to film at an actual dog show but none would let them. so all of these handlers and dogs are REAL handlers and show dogs from the circuit. Earlene Luke, the hound category judge, trained the cast for accuracy.

CONGRATS WINKY!

i mean they're no mitch and mickey...

American Bitch: The Dog Magazine for Women and their Dogs “it's a focus on the issues of the lesbian purebred dog owner” can this be a new @NYMag vertical?

Harlan Pepper dressed as a cowboy talking about going to a kibbutz... where is the sequel.

The fact that Guest ad-libbed that ventriloquism is “an ancient art” and then some poor PA had to make this weird hieroglyphic on Microsoft Paint on their Microsoft XP...

fine art #vulturemovieclub

aaaaaand that's a wrap on this week's #vulturemovieclub! can't send you off without giving credit to the real show dogs who played the canine cast. these names! reality really is stranger than fiction, huh.

^tag yourself, i'm Brocade Exclamation