Drop dead gorgeous

Set in small town America, “Drop dead gorgeous” is a satire about teen beauty contests, ambitious parents and urban dysfunction. As the citizens of Mount Rose, Minnesota gear up for the Sarah Rose Miss Teen Princess America Pageant, the proceedings are filmed by a documentary crew, lending the film its mockumentary structure. The main contestants are Becky Leeman, whose ambitious mother runs the beauty contest and Amber Atkins, a plucky and talented working class teen who lives in a trailer park with her depressed alcoholic mother. When various contestants die in an array of mysterious circumstances Amber suspects that her life is in danger if she stays in competition. This film takes a savage view of American societal mores, as it mocks small town values, beauty contests, marriage, alcoholism, obesity, anorexia, paedophiles, handicapped people, mother-daughter relationships and the gauche self-consciousness of teenagers. It gladly follows in the footsteps of “Waiting for Guffman” and “Spinal tap”, but never reaches the hilarity of such predecessors, possibly due to its good natured and loveable heroine, contrasting too starkly with hideous caricatures. At times the black humour and merciless ridiculing of the screenplay are uncomfortable to watch, defiantly crossing over into bad taste on numerous occasions.