If Ellen Barkin's beer-can hand doesn't wet your knickers, Denise
Richards dancing with Jesus will. Jann's pseudo-documentary about
the vicious world of beauty pageants is People Like Us on acid. Dunst
plays the trailer-park kid competing against Richards, whose mother
(Alley) is former pageant queen and whose father sponsors the local
contest. Cue disasters 'mysteriously' befalling each contestant.
Dunst, as Miss Goody Two Shoes has the least to do, while Barkin as her
trashy but determined mom rakes in the laughs. Good to see Alley on
uber-bitch form. Somewhere in there's a serious comment on class and
beauty in America. Really.
