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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Little Miss Sunshine

Henningjohnathan

20:07 / 12.09.06

I don't think anyone's started a thread for this film. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who wants an honest hour and half of well-written and genuinely funny comedy dealing with the bleak underbelly of the average American family. One of the most interesting points I noticed is that the filmmakers wait until near the end of the film to very indirectly reveal an essential element about the relationship of the teenage son, Dwayne, to the rest of the family. Once you realize it, a lot of what happened in the movie up to that point twists around into a completely new light so that the actual moment of revelation has a kind of resonating impact. It's really rare to get that sort of thing played so subtly in a modern American movie.

miss wonderstarr

21:20 / 12.09.06

It must have been subtle as I'm not sure what you mean and I saw it today! Perhaps unrelated but is it that his mother was previously married, and Olive's dad isn't his dad? I was a little confused about him shouting "divorced" at her when he goes into his screaming purge by the side of the road. Maybe I just misheard or misunderstood.

I actually didn't expect to like this movie much, despite its many good reviews (90%+ on Rotten Tomatoes) as the Time Out review I read at the weekend gave it 2 stars and scorned it for by-the-numbers "quirkiness", eg. dad is a self-help guru and so of course is unbearable because of it; van needs them all to push-start it for no convincing reason apart from whimsy and slapstick.

Like another unusual family road movie, Transamerica, it grew on me during the journey. I am a sucker for uplifting, root-for-the-underdog dance routines (cf. Napoleon Dynamite) so I dug the final scene, but I did wonder afterwards if, despite the film's satirising of the sexualisation of young girls, there wasn't something a bit icky about cheering a scene where a seven year-old actress strips off and does a raunchy dance.

Henningjohnathan

21:48 / 12.09.06

Perhaps unrelated but is it that his mother was previously married, and Olive's dad isn't his dad? I was a little confused about him shouting "divorced" at her when he goes into his screaming purge by the side of the road. Maybe I just misheard or misunderstood.

That was it. Throughout the movie, I couldn't see really why Dwayne was so disconnected (it wasn't even father-son animosity) from his dad while Olive was so attached, but when it was revealed that he's NOT Dwayne's dad, a lot of the character's history came into focus.

22:04 / 12.09.06

I definitely enjoyed the film, but I do think it fell prey to a bit too much quirky indieness for its own good. Now, I much prefer quirky indie comedy to what's in most big Hollywood comedy, but I don't think this film did too much that hasn't been done before. Part of it is I'm really bothered by the fact that a film that stars Steve Carrell, arguably the biggest comedy star around right now, along with a bunch of other name people is considered an indie comedy. It's only because mainstream stuff is so bad, that a well made, funny film like this is considered alternative.

miss wonderstarr

07:28 / 13.09.06

a lot of the character's history came into focus.

True, and it's a good point that in an earlier movie, this could have been the whole "issue" of the film! You can imagine (say) a 1950s melodrama based entirely around a mute, Nietzschean son with the huge twist that in fact, his mother was divorced and his "dad" wasn't.

Patrick, I wonder if your point raises the question of what counts as "indie". It's true that at least two of the actors were fairly well known, but does "independent" relate to funding and production (? probably also a misnomer as Pulp Fiction is famously an "independent" movie financially/institutionally, but also a huge mainstream success in other ways) or is "indie" more a genre now, a style of performance, script and narrative?

15:33 / 13.09.06

I'd say that indie is definitely more a genre at this point. I think the film was financed independently, but I don't think there was much doubt it'd be picked up by a major studio. The film is definitely in the same mode as a Garden State or Me, You and Everyone We Know, with the same quirky, yet lovable characters and mix of broad comedy with more dramatic undertones.

There's nothing wrong with doing a film in this genre, my main issue is that I feel like this is what should be considered a mainstream film. If you've got this film playing at your local arthouse cinema, it's going to be impossible to get screens for more esoteric, actually independent stuff.

Henningjohnathan

17:24 / 13.09.06

Considering the amount of studio involvement in the "indy" film business, it would probably be more appropriate to call these ":dependent films."

I think there is a "Sundance" genre that applies to many of these films like these. The similarities of subject matter, quirky characters and off-kilter "uplifting" conclusions is feeling much more formulated.

23:18 / 04.12.06

I guess I missed the big reveal... I thought Dwayne screamed "divorce" at his mom in reference to her threats to divorce his dad over the failure-to-launch of his book. I mean, he also screamed "suicide" at Uncle Frank who didn't actually commit suicide, and "bankrupt" at dad, who isn't actually bankrupt, or so he says.

Patrick, I understand where you're coming from wrt the indie issue, as that was my exact reaction to Sideways. But I liked this movie. It was nothing groundbreaking but it was sweet, funny, with good writing and a good cast. I've always loved Toni Collette, I thought both kids were great.... I certainly don't agree that this was a portrayal of the "underbelly" of the American family, more like a naturalistic portrayal of an American family, warts & all. I thought the characters and their flaws were handled with a subtlety that was kind of refreshing.

12:48 / 31.01.07

After months of people telling me I "just have to" see Little Miss Sunshine, I just got around to it last night....and I'm frankly kind of stunned at the extraordinarily enthusiastic response it's receiving. I thought it was facile and contrived and eschewed any kind of believability for calculated quirk. A motivational speaker who's fanatical about winning but is in fact a big loser; a surly teen obsessed with Nietszche who takes a vow of silence while he works toward being an Air Force fighter pilot; a gay, suicidal Proust scholar; a cantankerous, profanity-spewing heroin-addicted senior citizen....I'm going to steal a line from one of the (very, very few) negative reviews I've read - "these aren't organic characters, they're a collection of screenwriter index cards." The beauty pageant finale is sledgehammer unsubtle and unconvincing.

The filmmakers were incredibly fortunate to get such a great cast, because the performances really do elevate the material, but I'm left scratching my head as to why audiences are responding so enthusiastically to this film - is it one of those things where, in a time of doom and gloom, people need (if you'll forgive the pun) that ray of sunshine?

14:07 / 31.01.07

I liked it, I think, *because* of the index cards. That feeling of, "Oh, man, that's so perfect!" (an embodiment of this type or that type) was the source of joy for me. In part because I like recognizing those types in myself -- I think the comparison to 1950s melodrama is right on, because those movies play with the same kind of formally constructed characters (rather than organic, unpredictable ones).

15:38 / 31.01.07

Cameron, you said pretty much everything I was going to say. Other than, I hate indie quirkiness for the sake of indie quirkiness.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

15:45 / 31.01.07

I actually liked the weirdly constructed indie road-movieness, although possibly because it felt like the characters were doing their own thing while the plot rolled on. The road movie "spot of car trouble" (which then haunts the rest of the flick) and the inevitable dead body in the trunk - staples of the genre that "had to be" while everything else was going on. Toni Collette really wowed me considering she wasn't actually given anything to do beyond being all motherly, while the other characters got to be more active; she did a good job with a weak role, playing it with a lot of unexpected nuance. It's definitely heavily flawed, though, and perfectly exemplifies indie-as-genre (to be followed up by stuff like Thumbsucker and Junebug, drowning in their indie-ness and ultimately boring as a result)...

19:56 / 31.01.07

>>>I liked it, I think, *because* of the index cards. That feeling of, "Oh, man, that's so perfect!" (an embodiment of this type or that type) was the source of joy for me.<<<

I think I would agree if the archetypes were in any way genuine or relatable, but I don't think that the surly teenage Nietzsche student who communicates only with a notepad and is training to be a USAF jet pilot (oh and also by the way he's colourblind) is a perfect representation of ANY recognizable human characteristic. To me it seemed as though the screenwriter sat himself down and tried to come up with bizarre character traits purely for the sake of it. What reason does Steve Carrell's character have for being "the nation's #1 Proust scholar"? What does it contribute to his character or the narrative? Nothing, except for being kooky and off-beat. It's not enough to make grandpa foul-mouthed and lecherous, he's got to have a heroin habit, because that's just off-the-rails crazy!

The van gets broken because it provides a silly, manufactured oddity of them having to push-start it all the time. Greg Kinnear convinces a complete stranger to lend him their motorscooter (the mechanics of the discussion, a perfect opportunity to show Kinnear's motivational speaker character being persuasive, are stupefyingly left off-camera) purely because it allows the goofy image of him riding a rickety motorscooter on the freeway.

Gah, the more I think about this movie the more it's irritating me that it was nominated for a screenplay Oscar.

20:03 / 31.01.07

Even as somebody who likes the movie, I was dumbfounded at the Oscar nomination.

20:59 / 31.01.07

Sadly, it's probably got the second best shot of winning the best picture Oscar, and I could easily see a Crash style surge down the line. I think that would officially mark the total obsolescence of the Academy Awards as anything remotely meaningful.

21:18 / 31.01.07

It was nominated for Best Picture too??? Jesus!

I also didn't mention the crushing stupidity of the scene where the motorcycle cop attempts to search the van, fails to see the corpse because he's pre-occupied with drooling over the porn magazines, until being creeped out by the gay magazine in the stack, which causes him to get on his bike and drive away.

Best Picture???

22:54 / 31.01.07

it's an "indie" National Lampoon's Vacation and I loved it for that...

01:17 / 01.02.07

Its characters have no depth, no other dimensions to their indie weirdness. If it wins any Oscars, it will finish the Awards for me (because last year was a mortal wound for me and the Oscars)

01:17 / 01.02.07

And yes, I care that much.

Crux Is This City's Protector.

02:35 / 01.02.07

Dudes, doesn't cinema history boil down to a list of great films which lost Best Picture to something infinitely more forgettable? If the Oscars have ever had any relevance, it won't be Little Miss Sunshine that murders it.

09:43 / 13.02.07

wow, I only saw that much thinking highly about the Oscar when the local tv channel here broadcasts it.

I thought it was a extremely cute film. There were bits that made me go "wait for it, might only be a tiny low point", but overall it left me with a tiny one-sided smile. Even at the moment it could go at the most mean-spirited tired critique or commentary, it just went on a playful funny and sweet-family-tiny-victory moment (IMHO at least. I read a few reviews that the particular scene -- Olive's dance -- was a jab at the sexualized contests; I just felt the viewer would look at the contest and automatically would think it's weird already and Olive's song&dance would be the funnily ignorant bizarre charming twist on what one would already have it established -- although it gave me the creeps that grandpa spent all that time with her on that).

It was sweet, without taking itself as world-changing and profound or mega-solid.