Little Miss Sunshine

Great movie! Rollercoaster of emotion as it tells a story about family, life changes, loss and joy. Full of humor

The timing of the film's theatrical release with the latest bombshell about the JonBenet case is practically uncanny. However, as a viewing of the DVD will plainly show, the satiric critique of the Little Miss Living Doll beauty pageants is relatively contained, occupying the last 20 minutes, though the point is unmistakable. The ultra polished, talented contestants against whom the film's slightly pudgy and awkward hero, Olive, competes aren't so much little girls as miniature Las Vegas show queens, coached in seductive eye use and sexy posturing. How ironic that the manager of the beauty contest is scandalized by Olive, whose "improper" strip tease, taught to her by her grandfather, doesn't contain a hint of seduction or sexuality. Olive's quest to be a beauty queen appears to align her with other members of her family. Her obtuse, self-programmed father, who preaches #1 or none, wants to be a published authority on positive thinking and winning. Her suicidal, sensitive, gay uncle wants to be recognized as the world's #1 Proust scholar. Her introverted, tormented and driven brother wants to be a jet pilot in his own private Nietzschean world. Toni Collette as the mom, on the other hand, is the model of tolerance and forebearance, a supportive "gamer" whose ability to eat ice cream without guilt fortunately has a more profound effect on her daughter than the father's insistence on winning at any cost. By the end of the film, our family of losers ultimately emerge as true winners. Alan Arkin, as the profane patriarchal grandfather, provides the film's enduring wisdom, counseling both his son and granddaughter (Abigail Breslin deserves a supporting actress award for this scene alone) before his death about the importance of simply living life to the fullest. A real winner, he tells the family, is someone "who's not so afraid of losing he's afraid to try." It's not the destination that matters; it's the trip. And the film literally offers one hell of a ride. Apart from some raw language, this is a family film recommended for all dysfunctional families who enjoy crying as much as laughing together. At the same time, thanks to inventive scripting and directing, this little gem transcends the "family film" genre, providing moments of subtlety, nuance, and genuine "life." The very different, often ambivalent, responses of various members of the pageant to Olive's performance suggest that not everyone buys into the Little Miss America mentality. And again the mom is the one member of the family who has sufficient confidence in her daughter to sense that the men's concern about Olive's being "laughed at" speaks less about Olive than their own childish fears and self-consciousness. Finally, by making Grandpa the unlikely voice of wisdom, the film takes on universal, life-affirming resonance. "Little Miss Sunshine" counters our tendency to see living merely as a "means" to some distant end or goal. Often the means needs no justification: being fully alive in the here and now can be the biggest prize of all. Count this one is an all-around winner--an entertaining, formulaic movie with enough twists, vitality, heart, and thought to almost atone for all of those long, dull "Talledega Nights" which moviegoers increasingly have to endure as part of their desensitizing training.

Best movie, watched with my grands 13 and 16. They love the movie.

Fantastic film with performances of actors that went on to be great actors.

Fun watch!

In my opinion, the movie, Little Miss Sunshine, was very well written and executed in a way that had some serious and some laugh out loud moments. It was directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. It also has some big actors which include; Abigail Breslin(Olive Hoover), Greg Kinnear(Richard Hoover), and Paul Dano(Dwayne Hoover). It also starred Alan Arkin as Grandpa Ed and Steve Carell as Frank Ginsbon. The man who helped write and create the movie was Michael Arndt. I thought that the storyline was interesting because it showed the real life of a dysfunctional family. It was something you could relate to. There were a couple of major scenes in the movie that helped the plot of the film. The plot is a family is determined to get their daughter to a beauty pageant. They go on a road trip by piling into a VW bus and heading to California to support a daughter in her bid to win the Little Miss Sunshine Contest and along the way they have a couple of bumps in the road. The production side of the movie made it excellent with the pace of the movie and the diegetic sound. Other important parts of the film were the main character, Abigail Breslin(Olive), and the family dynamics throughout the movie. There were two main parts to the production of the movie that made it excellent. It was the pace of the movie and the diegetic sound. The movie was about almost a two-hour movie, which is about average for a comedy-drama movie to be. However, I noticed at times that the movie would bring my attention in and at other times it would drag out. For example, the gas station scene when the family is on the road, in my opinion, was slow and almost unnecessary because it didn’t fall in line with the rest of the storyline/plot of the movie. I think this because it only had minor details in it and was kind of boring. It showed the uncle buying inappropriate magazines for the grandpa. Then it showed the dad on a phone call with his work and explaining something that happened within the company. In another scene at the end of the beauty pageant, that whole scene drew me in because you could finally see the family come together and fully support their daughter. A lot was going on and I could not take my eyes off the screen. Diegetic sound is a noise that has a source on-screen. They are noises that have not been edited in. The movie did a good job of adding this in and it played a big role in the movie. The son in the movie took a vow of silence until he made it into the air force academy. Something happened in the movie where it affected the speech of the son(I will not spoil it), but the diegetic sound of the son changes. This is important because it was something significant that changed the mood of the son for the rest of the movie. This is where the family hit their first major bump in the road. The family has quite a few scenes where they talk over one another. This is important because it is a family dynamic where you see in almost all the families. It also gets really loud and then dead silent right after the family finishes arguing with one another. Another example of this involves the little girl. In the movie, you always see her dancing and listening to her music. In the movie, you never hear her music until the big performance and it’s quite clever how the director did this because it is a shock to everyone. It also gave us a final laugh out loud moment. The whole movie is based around Olive Hoover(Abigail Breslin). The family works very hard to make sure that they can make their daughter happy and fulfill her goal of winning the pageant. The dad takes time off work, and the grandpa and uncle tag along because they have to and they want to support their granddaughter/niece. Even when the family disagrees or has an argument, she is the one who steps in to help or is the resolution to the problems along the way. In other words, she is the glue to the family. She is very curious about the world. She asks a bunch of questions and wants to understand why her family does what they do. Olive Hoover also faced a couple of speed bumps along the way. Since she is in the pageant world, she is constantly worrying about how she looks and acts. Her father was not very supportive and even called her fat because she wanted to eat ice cream. No matter what problem she faced, she always prevailed and tried her best. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the directors, did a good job of creating a very specific family dynamic. It played a huge role in making the movie what intended to become. They made sure that each character had a specific mood they gave off. For example, the daughter was carefree and a ball of energy, the uncle was depressed and had a gloomy outlook, and the mom just tried her best to make everyone happy. You see all of this in the opening scene of the movie. This makes it more relatable because, at some point in the viewers' life, the director was trying to make a connection. Everyone involved in the production of the movie wanted to get the main theme/idea of the movie across, which was that family is the most important thing in the world. They would do anything for you and will always come together at the end of the day. This is important because it helps the movie become more of a real-life thing and it makes it more memorable when you can connect with the movie. All in all, this was a well-produced movie and I highly recommend it. It was different from most movies because it had relatable content and it had hidden humor within the movie, which is my personal favorite. I like how it showed how the family puts “fun” in dysfunctional.

Good movie

Super funny movie

This is one of the best comedy-dramas I have seen in my life. A perfect cast and a great road trip.. This movie will put a wide smile to your face.. Don't miss. 5 Stars

Film magnifique avec un petit twist qui dénonce parfaitement l'hyprocrisie des concours de mini-miss. Le grand-père est hilarant, la petite fille adorable, le grand frère hallucinant, tout comme le tonton spécialiste de Proust.

Little Miss Sunshine is an appropriate title for a film which burst onto the independent cinema screens like a surprising, welcome and thoroughly enjoyable slice of art-house comedy. This is a tightly written, well scripted, excellently acted and hilarious film, at turns darkly and self-assuredly black and then riotously slapstick and self deprecating. The storyline centres around the trans-American adventures of a less than ordinary American family. With Transamerica, the unconventional road trip is obviously the comedy medium of choice in the independent cinema world. The film's very own Little Miss Sunshine is the gloriously unglamorous, vivacious and joyous Olive (Abigail Breslin), the youngest of the family. She wins the opportunity to attend the final of the Little Miss Sunshine pageant after the state winner is disqualified for diet pill abuse. This should send warning bells for the type of contest she is entering. This is the very dark, very disturbing world of American beauty contest. Eventually the truth is revealed, but first the family have to get there. This involves the suffering rock-like figure of the mom Sheyl (Toni Collette) and the can-do go getting, but ultimately failing author of a self-help book and seminar, the nine steps, dad Richard (Greg Kinnear) eschewing air travel for cost reasons, and loading the family in to a VW camper van. Along for the ride, and in perfect comedy unison, is the drug snorting, care-home evicted grandfather (whose eventual death provides the central slapstick, and whose last gift is a dance routine for the talent segment of the show that has to be seen to be believed), the mute, difficult teenage brother, who hates the world, his family and loves Nietzsche, and just wants to escape to flying school. Sheryl's brother is also brought, mostly because after a failed suicide attempt he can not be left alone. He provides much of the dry, darker humour that is very reminiscent of the best of the Royal Tennenbaums. He is a homosexual expert on Proust, who grates against the dad but eventually seems to come back around to enjoying life on the trip. The film is at once a wonderfully life-affirming slice of an atypical American family, and a refreshing change from the dysfunctional middle-class families that have obsessed Hollywood for the past decade. It is also a masterpiece of characterisation and casting. The characters are honed to comic perfection, and the casting of each actor and actress is a masterpiece for the roles. Of especial note and perfection is Breslin as Olive. To find a child actor so able to play this role without self consciousness or precocity makes her extremely endearing and an easy character to root for in the bizarre world of child beauty pageants. But each of the other main characters is also extremely well executed. The darkest elements of the film come in the portrayal of the pageants. They seem to suggest a sickness at the heart of middle America, where these children, none older than eight, are sprayed, preened, brushed and made up to be like miniature dolls. They wear their sickly smiles, their horribly suggestive outfits and are paraded in a pageant that features the oddly paedophilic compare and the horrendously competitive mothers. In short this is an extremely enjoyably film, and it would do it a massive disservice to simply label it as `feel good', but it does have this effect. Together with a brilliantly talented cast and a tight, wonderfully executed script this makes the surprise comedy hit of the year.

Film bellissimo, consigliato a tutti e a tutte le età. Fa sorridere, riflettere, commuovere. Fa capire quanto sia importante credere in quello che si è e quanto l’impegno che ci si mette per raggiungere un obiettivo sia più importante del risultato, una volta arrivati alla fine. Davvero molto bello e con un bellissimo insegnamento di vita.

I heard about this movie years ago and upon viewing a preview of this film, made it's purchase. An outstanding cast in an unusual mix of family problems and seemingly unrealistic goals in their daily circumstances. Many laughs along the way are an extra reward for your taking the time to view it! Excellent.