Little Miss Sunshine

Great movie ! Very funny!

This is an incredible movie! Well made, heartful, beautiful human story of family and connection! An Indie Drama for sure but a very good one!

A family trip in an old-style VW van to a children's beauty contest, with lots of mishaps, both along the way and at the contest. An absurd, funny, and generally harmless plot.

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.

Paul Dano! Also this movie is amazing!

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.

This is not a great film, but is definitely worth the time for some enjoyable eccentric behavior from a brilliant cast. Ms. Breslin's and Mr. Arkin's Oscar noms speak for themselves, but Kinnear, Carrell, Paul Dano and, especially, Toni Collette are so in touch with their material that Ms. Breslin's only task is to be reactionary, which she does beautifully and naturally. I HATE bad kid-actors and she won me over. There's fire and wisdom behind those beautiful, spectacled eyes, and when she lets loose at the end, you simply HAVE to cheer. I'm glad it won the Ensemble Cast award at SAG, though I doubt it will win Best Picture at the Oscars, if only because the directors weren't nominated. The clever screenplay of Michael Arndt may be its only chance of a win. Dysfunctional families have inundated our films lately, but I can't think of one recently that had me believing that such families could be as entertaining. Indeed, the plot is outrageous, pitting one obstacle against another, but the ending is satisfying and appropriate. "Little Miss Sunshine" is a small, easy to watch film, and though some previous reviewers were offended by the foul language, I thought it was representational of the characters' state at the moment. Yes, people do talk like that a lot. Lighten up, folks... I had a good time, and laughed a lot. I also felt for the characters, something I can't always say. Due to its popularity, it almost screams for a sequel. I hope they leave it alone, and let it stand by itself. Further interventions into the lives of these characters might be overkill. UPDATE: I love Eddie Murphy, but I'm glad Arkin won the Oscar. His foul-mouthed outrage is remembered more than the sweet moments he had with Ms. Breslin.

At the beginning of "Little Miss Sunshine", everyone seems to be floating in a kind of Proustian soup--a fact marked by the screenwriters when they make one of the ensemble cast, Frank,who has just lost his lover and attempted suicide "the world's #1 Proust scholar". The three adult male members--Frank, the uncle (Steve Carell), father Richard (Greg Kinnear), and Richard's father (Alan Arkin, "Grandpa"), come at us with eyes full of a sense of a life somehow gone off the track, much as little Olive, the title character, bounces cheerily in with eyes full of hope and dreams. Paul Dano, as teenage Dwayne, in a vow of silence that allows his character to play the tortured adolescent brilliantly by showing no affect whatsoever and through scribbled notes like "Welcome to Hell" and "Please don't kill yourself tonight", still hangs on to two dreams--getting away from his family, and being a test pilot for the Air Force. Mom Sheryl (Toni Colette), quirky in her own way, ("Olive, you can be fat or thin, whichever you want,") is the glue that seems to hold this bunch together. When Olive gets a chance to participate in the finals of a beauty contest in another state, the family pack up in the yellow VW van. On the way, dad keeps in touch with the guru who's supposed to get his first book off the ground, of which he told mom "This is it," an apparent promise to get his office out of her kitchen. He excitedly shares his "9 Step" self help program to everyone. Grandpa, who has been helping Olive with the "talent" part of her performance, sneaks into the bathroom to snort some of the cocaine that got him kicked out of the retirement home and into the Hoovers' household. Frank seems to be growing comfortable with this quirky family of his sister's, particularly Dwayne. But before they reach the Redondo Beach hotel where the pageant takes place, losses or the poignant memories knock the wind out of each of the yellow, sunshiny bus's passengers. Painful (and expensive) as these problems threaten to be, no one suggests turning back. Once in Redondo Beach, afraid the pageant is not for Olive, they are tempted to "protect" her from her own dream. After all, they've all just been a little bruised, they don't want her to feel such pain. But instead, they find a way to temper the consequences of living those dreams out, a little. In doing so, they craft a last scene full of all the comedic command of Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, an up and coming little Abigail Breslin, other members of this stupendous cast, and a certain funky number by the late Rick James. ********* DVD EXTRAS This DVD is worthwhile in that the directors' and writers' comments are helpful in understanding the film. I'm surprised to hear, for example, that the directors thought the scene with Frank (Steve Carell) in the convenience store (no spoilers, sorry) would be funny. It will break your heart--as will the one scene where Dwayne does become emotional. The camera technique used by having a camera in the back and front of the bus (and several different busses) gave more of a sense of what the crew and cast were going through on this low-budget film: clearly a labor of love. Don't get too excited over the 4 alternate endings. 1 of them is Abigail Breslin's (Olive) ending, "with Abigail Breslin directing" and you can pretty much guess the 2 minute ending she would have liked. It's funny, but it was never seriously considered.

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

Two very good films. I particularly love Little Miss Sunshine. Great script and fantastic performances from an impressive list of great actors.

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.

PROLOG: es gibt sie, die Filme, die einfach gemacht werden müssen. Die uns eine Welt, eine Familie, verschiedene Menschen, die zusammenleben, so oder so... mit einige Katastrophen und viel Herz zeigen. Und mit denen wir uns trotz der etwas ge­wöh­nungs­be­dürf­tiger Art sogar identifizieren können. Meistens jedenfalls. Wir alle, naja, fast alle kennen eine Familie Hoover, sind ihr zum Teil etwas ähnlich. Das Leben könnte so schön vorprogrammiert sein, aber? Wer hat unser Programm geklaut? Auch der neue Computer wird uns keine Lösung bringen - wir sind nur Menschen. Und die im Film eben auch! ZU DEM INHALT: Richard Hoover (Greg Kinnear) ist ein Motivations - Coach, der eine, so glaubt er, perfekte Methode für die Gewinner entwickelt hat (kein Mensch will ein Verlierer sein!). In NEUN Schritten kann man schnell vom Loser zu einem Erfolgsmann/frau werden. Er glaubt fest daran, dass sein Buch ein Erfolg wird und ruft mehrmals am Tag seinen Verleger an. Seine Frau, Sheryl (Toni Collette) ist vor allem eine müde und fast ausgelaugte Hausfrau, Mutter, Schwester und Schwiegertochter. Mit zwei Kindern, dem Sohn (aus der früheren Beziehung), Dwayne (Paul Dano) und der Tochter Olive (Abigail Breslin,) hat sie genug Arbeit. Seit einiger Zeit lebt im Hause Hoover noch ihr Schwiegervater Edwin (Alan Arkin), der aus dem Altesheim rausgeflogen ist - er hat einfach zu viele Drogen genommen (und mit dem S*** hatte er auch noch zu tun gehabt, hm). Und als dann noch ihr Bruder, Frank Ginsburg (Steve Carell) einen Selbstmordversuch verübt, ist sie nur noch fertig. Sie muß ihn aus dem Krankenhaus holen und aufpassen, dass er am Leben bleibt. Zuhause bei den Hoover's kann, ganz normal nach alldem trotzdem eine besondere Stimmung, ein ungewöhnliches Bild beobachten. Dwayne spricht seit NEUN Monate kein Wort. Er ist um 15-16 Jahre jung, liebt Nietzsche (ob er ihn versteht, bleibt offen - vielleicht hat er einige Passagen von dem Philosophen zu ernst genommen); und möchte erst dann wieder sprechen, wenn man ihm erlaubt, dass er Pilot wird. Man wundert sich, wie leicht er mit einem Stift und Notizblock kommuniziert. Übung, eben. Und jetzt muß er mit seinem Onkel Frank aushalten - im selben Zimmer, weil seine Mutter Angst hat, Frank würde wieder was anstellen. Er hat zwar überlebt, aber seinen Job an der Universität hat er verloren. Und seine Sympathie, einen Studenten auch. Am Abend ist die Familie versammelt, die Mutter kann noch etwas Salat machen, sonst essen sie aus einem "Eimer" (anders kann man das nicht bezeichnen) Hähnchen, frittiert, nicht gerade DIE ultimative und gesundeste Kost. Olive, sieben Jahre hat einen großen Wunsch. Sie möchte noch einmal bei einem Schönheitswettbewerb dabei sein. Und gewinnen! Das Glück kommt unverhofft; als Zweite in New Mexico, darf sie nach Kalifornien, weil die Erste disqualifiziert wurde (warum auch immer). Der Weg ist nun FREI, wenn die Familie sie begleiten kann, oder wenn wenigstens eine/r mitkommt. Am besten ALLE! Die Laune ist für die Fahrt nicht so wichtig, es gibt größere Probleme. Die Familie rafft sich zusammen und es geht los. Der gelbe VW-Bus fährt und fährt. Die Fahrt ist eine harte Prüfung. Die Kupplung von dem Wagen ist - kaputt, so muß man den Wagen zuerst schieben und dann laufen, um ihn nicht zu "verpassen". Die Eltern schreien, es wird gestritten, die Schuldigen werden gesucht... Olive hört ihre Musik, Frank versucht mit Dwayne "zu sprechen", der Großvater hat sein Heroin zum Glück bei sich. Und als ihm Frank noch wunderschöne Zeitschriften kauft, die seine Augen erfreuen, ist wenigstens seine Welt in Ordnung. Doch die Familie wird noch viele Schläge ertragen müssen, bevor sie in Los Angeles ankommen. Sie werden den Großvater in einem komischen "Kleid" herumfahren. Dwayne erfährt, dass es sich nicht gelohnt hat zu schweigen - er ist farbenblind und kann sowieso nicht Pilot werden (oder?). Und Frank sieht, wie seine Liebe "seine Ideen" über Proust veröffentlich hat. Er hat ihn gleich zweimal verraten. Richard erfährt, dass sein Programm nichts besonderes ist. Alles verloren? Nein - denn Olive hat noch ihren Auftritt. Neben kleinen Prinzessinnen, die auf Lolita's machen, ist sie ein pummeligee Mädchen mit der Brille und glatten Haaren. Und nicht geschminkt - oh, schrecklich! Doch der Opa hat mit ihr geübt und was daraus geworden ist - es ist eine Wonne, das Mädchen zu sehen - und die Menschen um sie. Abigail Breslin, die Olive gespielt hat, war bei den Dreharbeiten 9 Jahre jung. Sie wurde für den Oscar nominiert (die Nebenrolle - vielleicht ist es besser, dass sie ihn nicht bekommen hat, Oscar und Kinder - keine gute Verbindung!). Sie spielt so gut, dass man nur hofft, sie würde ihr Talent behalten. Alan Arkin, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano...eigentlich spielt jeder aus der "Hoover-Familie" perfekt. Ob sie nur spielen, fragt man sich, ob sie ihre Erinnerungen hineinbringen. Warum nicht? Wie geschrieben, ist Familie Hoover wirklich chaotisch, alles geht drum und dran. Man hat aus einer großen Portion Humor, aber auch Zynismus eine Geschichte gemacht, die uns alle betrifft. Wir freuen uns, dass wir nicht alles auf einmal erleben müssen. Ein Film, den man mehr als einmal sehen kann... 5 Sterne, oder etwas weniger - aber für die Selbstironie ist der letzte Stern berechtigt.

american way of life op zijn best steve carrrel mijn favoriete acteur ook zegt daar op gegeven moment iets heel frappants