Imagine a weird blend of "This Is Spinal Tap" and "Fargo" and you will have a fairly good read on 1999's "Drop Dead Gorgeous. There is definitely a Coen Brothers feel to the film, which is done in "mockumentary" style and told from the point of view of a film crew investigating the world of local beauty pageants; specifically the Miss Teen Princess contest in Mount Rose, Minnesota.

But it would be a mistake to think that this is just a satire of the beauty pageant world or of folks from Minnesota. The film has much bigger targets, as it pretty much takes on every excess to be found in the competitive culture of modern American. Making it the most subversive comedy since "Dr. Strangelove". It may not have the consistency of Kubrick's masterpiece, but it has a slightly higher comic hit to miss ratio than "Airplane".

Former Miss Teen Princess Gladys Leeman (Kirstie Alley) is in charge of the Mount Rose preliminary, a conflict of interest because her daughter Becky (Denise Richards) (a younger version of her mercenary mother) is a leading contender. After murdering her daughter's only real competition, Gladys targets trailer-park girl Amber (Kirsten Dunst), who hopes to use the contest as a means to follow in the footsteps of her idol Diane Sawyer.

There are so many different types of humor in "Drop Dead Gorgeous" that almost any viewer will find something amusing. But the degree of amusement will be in direct proportion to your degree of irreverence and "nothing sacred" attitudes. So if you are easily offended or are sense of humor challenged you would do well to stay away from this film.

I particularly liked the contestant's dramatic reading from "Soylent Green", and Britney Murphy's line about being conceived because her parents wanted someone who could donate a kidney to her older brother.

Although she only has a small part, Murphy pretty much steals every scene in which she appears. The three big parts (Alley, Richards, and Dunst) are played straight (or with parodied straightness) so most of the comedy comes from the supporting cast; most notably Allison Janney as a trailer park neighbor, Will Sasso as a mentally challenged small businessman, Seiko Matsudo as the resentful biological daughter of an Asian couple who dotes on their adopted Caucasian daughter, and Matt Malloy as a contest judge with a not so secret agenda.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.