Drop Dead Gorgeous

It would be easy enough to call Drop Dead Gorgeous a second-rate gloss on Smile, or a half-hearted Waiting for Guffman, or a wannabe The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom. Such criticisms wouldn't, however, do justice to the belly laughs provided by this faux documentary tale of a particularly cutthroat teen beauty pageant in a small Minnesota town. Some gags are exaggerated, some are subtle and some are sharp, but many of them work. Unfortunately, little else does. Lona Williams' script takes on too many targets to skewer any of them with optimum effectiveness, and director Michael Patrick Jann generally opts for an over-the-top style that robs the documentary set-up of any hope for verisimilitude. When it's funny, it's quite entertaining, but ultimately, you laugh, you sigh, and you think of the better films that have covered similar subject matter. Optional. (S. Renshaw)