Trailer of the Week - Drop Dead Gorgeous

A random rewatch from my pile for this week's trailer.  I hadn't thought of this film in years, then an article for its 20th anniversary reminded me of how much I had previously enjoyed it... well, enjoyed the last hour of it, I came in partway through a TV screening the first time.  So 50p's worth of credit in a CEX later, I got a copy for a rewatch, and thankfully this was one of those times my good memories were quite correct.  If anything, I think it was even better than I originally gave it credit for.  This is 1999's dark comedy gem, Drop Dead Gorgeous.

I do seem drawn to titles that didn't get nearly enough cred on first release, and only in retrospect does everyone suddenly realise "oh yeah, this was really awesome".  Great that it finally got the recognition, but pity it took you all until so long after opening weekend.  I think the reason why so many people didn't really get this film originally though is simply because we didn't appreciate at the time how accurate a portrayal of small town 'MURICA it was.  A lot of critics probably saw it as over the top, but in the social media age, now we can see a lot of the places this was parodying more, we can say that if anything, it's toning it down!  This really does feel like a cry for help, someone from these areas going "it's really bad out here; we are drowning in excess consumer products, blatant corruption at every level, NRA stickers, and COPS re-runs!  Save us!"  Some have said that I put too much of a political spin on things; this film has a scene where a privileged rich girl, in a blatantly rigged beauty pageant, who's daughter of the richest people in town, and a spokesperson for the NRA, dances with a stuffed Jesus, I don't have to bring in anything!

But this is no political discourse, this is a comedy, and it's one of the best of the era; every scene acts as its own little sketch, there's a great range of characters, dialogue's great, and there are some superb physical comedy moments.  It also helps that it has an incredibly dark streak running right through the heart of things.  Now not everything works perfectly; there's a mentally handicapped character that really wouldn't pass muster today, but it just about works because the gag is more about how the town is utterly useless and uncaring at providing any sort of help for him.  One major source of bonus points is that, given it's written by a woman, Lona Williams, it has a great range of female characters in here; Bechdel test passed with flying colours.  A superb cast playing them all too, especially Kirsten Dunst as our lead, and Kirstie Alley, who might be one of the best comedy movie villains of the era.

So yeah, a modest little film in a lot of ways, but one that I think has aged pretty damn well; it's a comedy with a fine vintage!  Sad that it's taken a while to really find its audience; I bet if you released something like it on Netflix today, it would be discovered and appreciated much faster.  In the meantime though, yeah, go find a copy of Drop Dead Gorgeous, and marvel at a final act that includes a possible tribute to The Wicker Man, the perils of seafood, and a gag that special guest star Adam West must have been a very good sport about.