Review of Drop Dead Gorgeous (1991) by Michael B — 16 Nov 2010

Amusingly ripe little satire of small-town attitudes and big-country morality in the form of a mockumentary, taking aim at everything the more shallow aspects of American society hold dear: looks, materialism and flashy nonsense. Dunst is just the right side of cute and sassy in order to not be too annoying and Richards is suitably nasty as the villain of the piece. Kirstey Alley puts in a good performance as the borderline obsessed mother as well. And the late Murphy steals most of the scenes she's in (which isn't very many). The satire isn't too subtle, but there are enough belly laughs to be had from weird situations and poking fun at the lack of self-awareness of the characters to pull this through to being worth a view.

This isn't "Spinal Tap" though it aims for it. But it's still good fun and the way they handled the 'Happy Ending' was pretty good.