Movie Review: Little Miss Sunshine
If you have a chance to rent one movie this year, get "Little Miss Sunshine". This film has some very real characters who most people could relate to. Also, by watching this film, one can feel slightly better about the dysfunction in one's own family because this family is painfully bad. The basic story involves a family with a "9 Steps to Success" father (Kinnear) who is so annoying you want to slap him, a mom who's trying to hold everything together (Collette), a suicidal uncle (Carrell), a perverted grandpa, a selectively mute teenager, and a sweet little girl named Olive. They need to make it from Albuquerque to California so that Olive, a runner up in the Little Miss Sunshine contest, can try to win the coveted crown. They have some obstacles to face along the way, like juggling schedules, driving a dilapidated old Volkswagen van, figuring out what to do with the grandpa who dies along the way, and dealing with teenage angst. Despite these obstacles, the family does make it to the pageant.Lessons learned from this film: Letting a suicidal relative befriend your angry teenager could possibly have a good outcome, never trust a perverted grandpa to train a young girl for a beauty pageant, and most importantly, keep a stash of porn in your vehicle for the purpose of bribing a police officer in order to get out of a traffic ticket and to distract him from the dead body in your trunk. In all seriousness, the film spoke to the fact that people need to be allowed to be who they are, that sometimes silence is better than words, and that people who can be themselves in a world of fake beauty should be applauded and celebrated.
On a side note, the beauty pageant was disturbing to watch, and I could not get the image of JonBenet Ramsey out of my head as I watched these little doll-like girls prance around on the stage. I don't know if that's how these pageants really are, but if so, then I wonder what is to be gained from parading these little girls on stage. Is it to give them a twisted sense of what beauty is? Or to make them overly aware of watching their figures at such a young age? Or just maybe it's so that adults have something pretty to look at that's unattainable for them.
Overall, I'd give "Little Miss Sunshine" 9 out of 10 dancing feet.
posted by Notta Wallflower at 8:06 AM
11 Comments:
That sounds like something our whole family would like!
I'll NEVER understand the lure of beauty pagaents! WHY would parents expose their daughters to a back-stabbing world, where only beauty and talent matter?
TSHS - I think you guys would like it, but there's a lot of swearing in it. Just be forewarned. You won't like the pageant part - I certainly didn't. Let me know what you guys think if you watch it. :-) I won't give too much away, but there was one part that had H laughing harder than I've ever seen before. ;-)
I would really like to see this - must rent it soon. If you liked it you might like the movie "Junebug" if you haven't seen it already. Another very strange family.
Beauty pageants of any kind, even dog shows, make me sad. I was really baffled by the reactions to Miss USA's bad behavior, 'cause if we teach teens that they can win worldwide admiration and cash prizes by showing off their booty in public, how could we possibly expect them to behave any differently in their spare time?
SME - I haven't seen that yet. I'll have to check it out. I never thought about dog shows in the same way. I don't usually watch them, but the closest I got was one of my favorite movies "Best In Show".
I loved this movie. John didn't like it very much. I love the way they portray the beauty pageant though - it's just so crazy and all the girls just look creepy.
SME: I'm with you on the whole Miss USA thing, but for a different reason: Why must a beauty queen always also be on a pedestal of morality? Men's competitions have no such "purity" clauses. It's all part of controlling women's sexuality for the benefit and entertainment of men.
Laura - I thought the same thing about the pageant. The little girls looked "plastic" to me.
Julia - Definitely one to save for after your little ones go to bed. ;-)
Notta, I was kind of curious about that movie and it's nice to hear that is pretty good. If you want to see a documentary of child beauty pageants see "Living Dolls". I read on IMDB that is really good if somewhat sad and is on my queue of movies I have to see.
Angelique - Thanks for the movie tip. Let me know what you think if you guys see it. :-)
You've been tagged. ;)
Loved this movie, too---so glad it's getting such good award recognition! When that kid started her talent portion, I honestly thought I was going to have a heart attack I was laughing so hard. The emotional build-up to that moment makes the comedic release so perfect.
Kori - I honestly cannot hear "Superfreak" without having images flash in my head from the movie. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought it was a great show.
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