Drop Dead Gorgeous is, at first glance, a pretty, glittering confection, but take a closer look and you’ll find a dark, sharp, and occasionally bloody core, threaded through with ambition, humour, and a surprisingly tender heart.
In other words, it’s the perfect encapsulation of what it is to be a teenage girl. And like the teenage girls it represents, Drop Dead Gorgeous was egregiously misunderstood and underappreciated by a world that wasn’t ready for its brilliance. Premiering in 1999, it was a box office flop and a critical failure, and would have been forever lost to the great Blockbuster in the sky if not for the impassioned championing of teenage girls and queer audiences who not only kept its flame alive, but made it burn even brighter.
Drop Dead Gorgeous is now a cult classic, and the very things it was once derided for are exactly what makes it so beloved.
A twisted tale
Unlike the glossy, feel-good teen rom-coms popular in the ‘90s, like She’s All That or 10 Things I Hate About You, Drop Dead Gorgeous is a mockumentary-style satire with a vicious bite. Set in a small town in Minnesota, it follows the American Teen Princess pageant and the girls participating in it (every appropriately-aged teen in town who isn’t a “total fry”), plus their mothers and the local townspeople-turned-judges.
At the centre of it all is Amber Atkins (Kirsten Dunst), a trailer park kid with a pretty face, big dreams, and not much else – except a mother (Ellen Barkin) who cares for her as much as she loves smoking and drinking, and a neighbour (Allison Janney) who cares for her almost as much (and smokes even more). Then there’s Becky Leeman (Denise Richards), a gorgeous rich girl who has it all, but still wants more – or at least, wants to please her mother, pageant chairwoman Gladys Leeman (Kirstie Alley), who will do literally anything to ensure Becky wins.
In other, perhaps more experienced, hands, you might expect Amber to be the kind of can-do girl who won’t stop until she achieves her dreams in spite of insurmountable odds. But from the pen of first-time screenwriter Lona Williams – herself a former Minnesotan teen beauty queen – and through the lens of first-time director Michael Patrick Jann, the story zigs when you expect it to zag, taking you on a subversive and daring ride where the dead bodies stack up, and success is ultimately achieved not through force of will but sheer, dumb luck. For all its over-the-top camp, the message of Drop Dead Gorgeous is disturbingly true to real life.
Wicked humour
Drop Dead Gorgeous contains the kinds of one-liners and set-pieces that are as genuinely shocking as they are absurdly funny. It doesn’t pull any punches, and if the humour is uncomfortable at times – well, it’s meant to be. From a pervy male judge who carries a video camera with him everywhere to an anorexic former winner barely able to move in her hospital bed, and from Amber’s mother escaping a trailer park fire with a beer can fused to her hand, to a whole squadron of beauty queens vomiting pink chunks of spoiled seafood everywhere, the jokes are deeply disturbing, disgusting – and absolutely glorious.
The script is teeming with incredible dialogue and one-liners that, if the movie weren’t so ahead of its time, would be up there in the cultural lexicon alongside “you’re a virgin who can’t drive” and “she doesn’t even go here!” Think “his furniture is as fake as my orgasms”, “once a carnie always a carnie”, “it’s front-page news when one of them takes a shit” and, so, so much more.
The mockumentary-style frames the whole mess beautifully, lingering on looks and pauses that create quiet beats which speak volumes – and draw laughs – even in moments without any dialogue.
An embarrassment of talent
Out of all the contemporary reviews that got it wrong when it comes to Drop Dead Gorgeous, perhaps the most striking one is from Variety’s Dennis Harvey, who dubs it “short on star power”. Of course, at the time, many of the cast were not quite at the level of acclaim they are today, but they were still some notable names – and even based on pure comedic talent, it’s all killer, no filler.
Kirsten Dunst is always at her best playing slightly off-beat, as she is here, while Denise Richards takes the hot, rich, mean girl archetype she became known for in Wild Things and turns it up to 100, to great comedic effect. Kirstie Alley is alarmingly great in full villain mode, while Ellen Barkin’s deadpan delivery and Alison Janney’s dry, wry wit make for some near-career best performances. Other cast highlights are Amy Adams in her feature debut as a sweet, perky, and very horny cheerleader, and the late, great Brittany Murphy as a giggly, New York-obsessed hick with a heart.
Looking back, it’s perhaps less remarkable that Drop Dead Gorgeous was a flop and more amazing that it got made at all. But while the world may not have been ready for it in 1999, there’s never been a better time to watch it than right now.
Drop Dead Gorgeous is now streaming at SBS On Demand.
