Little Miss Sunshine

Please post your thoughts and criticism about the 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine.

I thought this was also a great film of 2006!

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Benjamin Blaize Conner
Independent Film Fan
Screenwriter

I watched it while I was drunk so I'm not sure if I missed the beauty of the movie because of it but I thought it was useless.
Everyone insisted on educating me that it was an Arthouse movie and so that is why I should love it. I couldn't love this movie on first viewing but I will give it another go sober soon haha.

It was a very solid movie. It definitely wouldn't fit everyones style of humor as it is such a dark film, but I found it very funny. There were a lot of good acting performances in the film. To me it is one of those films that while being extremely dirty and points in time, is really funny and has a heart to it.

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"As I was walking up the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today,
I wish, I wish he'd go away."
-From Identity

Am gonna watch this movie sometime soon.

I loved this movie. The casting for the movie was absolutely perfect. Greg Kinnear always surprises me with how talented he is. In my opinion, he is saddled with the toughest role in the film, be being the one character that is not necessary the most like able in the beginning of the film. By the end, you are just as much on his side as you are everyone else's.

Everyone calls this a dark comedy, but it has a real easy light feel to it.Even when it could the film doesn't start to get maudlin, nor does it feel callous. For that alone I applaud the film The film has a message, but I didn't feel beat about the head with it. It's a refreshing realistic message too. More than that the film is just really funny.

I thought it was a good film, but I can see why people are disappointed with it; with all the hype about it, including the Oscar nominations it was almost punching above its weight.

I thought it was very funny and quite moving in places, but it was let down by a few cliched bits (kidnapping the dead body, for example), and they didn't seem to know how to end it.

Not trying to be argumentative, but I am not sure what you mean by the above. I didn't find any pretentiousness in the film. I thought it told the stories it wanted to tell and cared for and developed it's characters well. So why was it punching above its weight?

I mean you certainly can't hold hype against the movie. Just because a whole bunch of people say a movie is "the best ever" and it's not, doesn't mean I should judge the movie against those standards.

i found that little miss sunshine was in a strange way uplifting

I didn't find it pretentious either, I think you are exactly right about the way it told the stories and developed its characters. But while it is a good enough fun film, I still don't think it is a great film, or a film with anything particularly new or interesting to say which is why it seemed out of place among the oscar nominations. (Not of course, that all oscar nominees are great films by any stretch!)

I try not to judge a film by its hype as well, in the case of Little Miss Sunshine I saw it well before the oscar nomination and attendant hype so I'm certainly not holding hype against it. Seeing it with no expectations or previous knowledge, I found it a pleasantly surprising fun film. But can't you see why some people, having heard the hype, might be disappointed, expecting there to be more to it?

Of, course. Happens all the time. As long as you don't hold it against the film.

I actually kind of thought you were criticizing the film for trying to be bigger or more important than it was. I think I see now that you were just saying that you didn't like it as much as the majority. I can see that.

Not at all, I don't think it was the film's fault or intention to have so much hype surrounding it. I actually think in an odd way the hype worked against the film as there is inevitably backlash against something so hyped, whereas had it retained more of a cult word of mouth popularity it might have been more respected. Perhaps.

Naturally, I agree with both of you. You can't hold a film's hype against it (unless it's somehow responsible for it), but it's hard to tune it out completely, so it's bound to affect your feelings going in -- and, by extension, coming out.

Anyway, I'd just heard vagueries about it being good, and ended up loving it.

Delightful.

Seven year old Olive Hoover has only one desire, to become Miss America. When she qualify for the Little Miss Sunshine contest in California whole Hoover family goes on a trip from New Mexico to California in old Volkswagen T2 Microbus.

During the trip, each member gets through personal disappointment and a blow to his dreams, but that only made them more united as a family. Although Olive's dream is in the first place, each character has his own and to each is given attention in the story but almost all remained unfulfilled. Only the mother ultimately reached her goal while others realized they just have to be what they are, and that limiting yourself with social expectations and protocols sometimes makes no sense. It's a theme seen many times before, but it's blended in nice, humorous and charming story.
Most of the scenes are symbolic, and perhaps the most symbolic one is arrival at the hotel where the event takes place. While the road from motorway looked like one going towards hotel it started leading family away from it. That situation left them with a choice, to follow the road that takes them away from their goal, or to take some alternative and against the rules path.

Performance is excellent, especially for comedy for which is far above average, and Abigail Breslin and Alan Arkin should be highlighted. During scenes in which he was involved, Arkin drawn all attention to himself and young Breslin showed extremely serious and mature acting with only 10 years.
While humorous dialogues are well-ordered the serious one are naive. In some scenes it's on purpose, but sometimes it just look hastily written. On the other hand, the dinner scene was extremely interesting. In that scene whole family was introduced to audience in some very fast, but somehow naturally way. All characters are almost as caricatures, but all very interesting and memorable.
The movie is a kind of criticism of modern American society. Nothing new, but always brings a dose of satisfaction, especially to Non-Americans. The criticism of society in film, which culminates with an interesting performance by little Olive in competition, is cliched, but nicely done and there are several very funny scenes.

It's one of the better and funnier comedies lately, with solid criticism of modern society, which will surely leave most viewers feeling pleasant after viewing it.

7,5/10