Delayed Reaction: Drop Dead Gorgeous

Premise: A local beauty pageant gets cutthroat in a small Minnesota town. Like, really cutthroat.

It's fun when you can figure out a year a movie was made just by who is in it and in what roles.

• Kirsten Dunst leading an ensemble: 1999 or later.
• Brittany Murphy in a best friend role: Post-Clueless (1995), pre-Just Married (2003).
• Kristie Allie in a prominent role: Sometime in the 1900s.
• Denise Richards passing for a high-schooler: Maybe Valentine in 2001, but that's a real stretch.
• Amy Adams in a nothing role: Pre-2002 (Catch Me If You Can)
• Allison Janney in a scene-stealing supporting role: OK, that could happen whenever, but this far down the call sheet feels very pre-The West Wing (Fall 1999).

Drop Dead Gorgeous has to be a summer 1999 release (July 23, 1999). Even if you take out the cast, it belongs in that time period. It borrows heavily from the Farrelly brothers sense of humor (There's Something About Mary, 1998) and the Christopher Guest mockumentary style (Waiting for Guffman was 1996 and Best in Show was about to put his stamp on the style in 2000). It's funny how a movie can mark an era without needing obvious clues like the fashion choices or technology of the time.

This is also a movie that excellently highlights how valuable a good cast is. On a screenplay level, there isn't much about this movie that I really like. It's mean in a way that turns me off. The jokes lack subtlety. The director went on to direct a lot of episodes of Reno 911! which explains a lot. I could never get into that show either. Not a lot about it gelled with me, but the cast hit it so hard that I still had a good time with it. Kristie Allie, Ellen Barkin, and Mindy Sterling are pros who know how to hit a punchline. Brittany Murphy weaponizes her infectious likability. Kirsten Dunst knows how to make her earnestness work with the humor. Allison Janney pluses up even line-read to make it sound like it was workshopped for a week. Then there's Amy Adams who takes an absolutely nothing part and turns it into a really endearing character. 

The movie lost a lot of steam when it detoured through the state and national competitions. I would've gladly had the movie end with the Kirstie Alley murder revelation and gotten 15 more minutes of jokes during the local competition.

I totally get why this movie has earned a cult following. It's a successor to Heathers in a lot of ways. It's like Heathers had two children and named them Drop Dead Gorgeous and Jawbreaker. Seriously, this cast was damn near reverse-engineered for to get a cult following. Kirstie Alley went on to star in a "Fat Actress" reality series. Alison Janney has become a sub-Laura Dern gay icon*. Kirsten Dunst is also a favorite of a certain kind of Oscar fan (as a perpetual snub). Brittany Murphy has Clueless in her filmography and also died of an OD. Amy Adams is just the best, and we don't get to see her in this mode very often. It even has the bonus of Denise Richards being used perfectly. As I said, this cult status makes perfect sense.

*Although I realize the camps divided after the Janney vs. Laurie Metcalf wars of 2018.

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend