Madeline
Drop Dead Gorgeous is a cult classic film based on beauty queens in a small town in Minnesota. The movie takes the stereotypes of both small town United States and of beauty queens and putting them together in a single film is what makes this film hilarious. And when done in a mockumentary style, there is an added element to these characters who take themselves very seriously to become the next Mrs. America.
How mockumentarys became a thing is a strange but amazing trend that hit movies and shows in the late 1990s and early 2000s. These include Office Space, Borat, Best in Show, and the highlight of this post, Drop Dead Gorgeous. Taking the realism of movie making, documentaries, and making it a scripted comedy is an ingenious idea. With the number of mockumentarys out there, it seems as though many others think so. And Drop Dead Gorgeous is one of the best.
Premise of Drop Dead Gorgeous
The premise of the film is that it is a “documentary” of a beauty pageant in a small town in Minnesota. In the beginning of the film we meet each of our beauty queens. Each one has their own blown out stereotype of what people from small town are like. There is the pretty cheerleader with the football boyfriend who are always showing way to much public displays of affection. We meet the nerdy girl obsessed with dogs. We have a girl who has a brother who went to New York City and became a drag queen. She is now obsessed with New York City and is using the pageant as her way to follow him there. We have the gun carrying farmer and jock who wins everything and therefore can also win a beauty pageant.
Then we have the two front runners and main characters of the movie, Amber Atkins and Becky Leeman. Amber lives in a trailer park with her mom and works two jobs to help with bills. Tap dancing is her passion and will tap dance anywhere she goes. Becky, on the other hand, comes from a wealthy family who made their wealth from the town’s furniture store. Her mother won the competition when she was Becky’s age and she is determined to get Becky to win. Becky is clearly the front runner and Amber is clearly the only other contestant who has a chance at beating her.
As the story in Drop Dead Gorgeous goes on, one by one, each of the girls are killed off in freak accidents. Each of the accidents having the apparent target being to take down Amber. One attempt after another to get Amber out of the competition only raises her to the top. Making all the girls Drop Dead Gorgeous.
The Cast
The cast is star studded and impressive. Starting with Kirsten Dunst who plays Amber and Denise Richards who plays Becky. The other beauty queens include Amy Adams and Brittany Murphy. The pageant is ran by Kristie Alley and Mindy Sterling. And finally, Allison Janney plays Amber’s mother’s best friend who supports Amber while her mother is in the hospital. All parts, including not mentioned, do a fantastic job and make this movie the hilarious movie it is.
Final Thoughts
As this is a movie that was released in 1999, there were some elements that were a bit dated. That being said, the quality of the humor was not lost. Routing Amber Atkins on to be the next beauty queen in Minnesota is a well remembered past time for any girl who grew up with this movie… and was old enough to understand the humor.
