Litte Miss Sunshine
October 8th 2006 23:26
I've been seeing trailers for this movie for a long time... even though the cast looked stellar, the trailer bored the hell out of me, showing a dysfunctional family on a painful West Coast road trip. Oh, so funny.
When I got preview passes to see Little Miss Sunshine, I wasn't looking forward to it. In fact, I was reluctant to go, and went purely so that I could review it for 20/20 Filmsight.
I would have been well advised to have done some research before, though.
Because, as you might have guessed from the Rotten Tomatoes page, Little Miss Sunshine is fantastically hilarious, with great dialogue, uproarious comedy moments and a backdrop of serious subject matter.
In fact, the film won Best Feature Film at our own Sydney Film Festival last year and has received applause from critics around the globe.
And why not? The script is fantastic. This patchwork family goes on a trip to California to enter their 7-year-old daughter in a beauty pageant, and on the way, the grandfather kicks the bucket - probably from snorting heroin.
At the pageant, the little girl takes the microphone:
"I'd like to dedicate this dance routine to my grandfather... who taught me all my moves."
"Awwww, that's sweet," says the pageant host, a plastic mannequin type man, with a frighteningly taut smile plastered on this face, "And where is your grandpa?"
"He's locked in the trunk of our car."
This gets a big laugh from us, since we watched the family steal the grandfather's body from the hospital, throwing the body out the window. Offended? Disgusted? You could be, but the movie spins it off in a lighthearted manner, so that you'll root for this pack of wild, sickly dogs.
Yes, we laugh at the little girl's response, but when she starts her routine, soundtracked to Rick James' 'Superfreak', you'll actually laugh out loud, your eyes bulging from the strain.
Little Miss Sunshine was a surprise hit for the studios, grossing huge cash and giving the cast a turbo-boost for their careers - it helped establish Steve Carell as one of the top comedic talents in Hollywood at the moment. I was lucky that I forced myself to go. And I'd see it again.
With Steve Carell, Toni Collette and Greg Kinnear, the script gets done right. The sarcasm, the self-delusion in the film makes it painful to watch the movie at times; you'll cringe at the thought of his gutter-lying family in one beat-up VW bus.
But, just like a Greek tragedy, when everything gets destroyed, you'll feel the sweet release from anguish. The family suffers through an amazing amount of pain on this road trip, but, as I left the Palace Cinema on Norton, I felt strangely upbeat as I walked back to my car. I was expecting to get a parking ticket, but even that wouldn't have been enough to deflate me...
I say: Well worth it... a dark cloud hangs over this family, who's run-down and beat-up, but as they drive through constant sunshine, nothing seems abnormal. One of the best films of the year!
See it for: The dance routine at the end is unforgettable, but so is the porno-purchase scene...
Aussies in da House: Toni Collette, from Muriel's Wedding, always seems like a real person, which sounds stupid, but if you think about it, is a great compliment.
* this image is taken from the Wikipedia page for the film and is a promotional image used for commentary purposes only.
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Comment by Bryn
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Steve Carell is brilliant. Have you seen The 40-Year-Old Virgin? Bloody hilarious too!
...Hey did you get my private message by the way?
Comment by Miss Natalie
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Natalie - go see it! That little girl is an *amazing* actress...
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Comment by Bryn
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Comment by katyzzz
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I'm not into movies much but I do like images- seeing them and creating them and I'm trying to do
what little I can do to help/prevent dysfunctional families bearing in mind that all families are dysfunctional to some degree.
I'd be interested in having your opinion on my blogs, the two of them. katyzz is attracting the most
attention but I believe conversations in the family can do a lot to help.
There are Computer Art images and comments on each.
Look forward to seeing you there.
katyzzz
Comment by Cibbuano
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katyzzz, I'll check it out...
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Comment by Bryn
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I'm curious though, how does it rack up against such other Scorsese fare as Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, After Hours, Raging Bull, Mean Streets, Casino, Cape Fear ...?
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I was really surprised how good Little Miss Sunshine was, though... the trailer for it didn't do it justice.
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Comment by Tracy
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I thought this was a hidden gem of a film...it all worked and it was fantastic. Yes, those pageant girls and their mothers were all awful, terrible that their world does exist...
Tracy
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