In a world where Will Farrell dominates the box office with his particular brand of unfunny, it is great to see very intelligent, soul having comedies still being made and Little Miss Sunshine is the epitome of intelligent comedy. On paper this movie looks terrible. It looks as if it belongs on Saturday Night Live, but amazing acting, a great script and brilliant directing turn this into the second funniest comedy of the year (behind Clerks 2, but just barely). The movie follows the most dysfunctional of families on a road trip to get the youngest girl to a beauty pageant and by the time they reach the hilarious and moving climax, you are ready to sit and Watch them make their way home.
Greg Kinnear, in his most spirited performance since As good as it gets, stars as a wannabe motivational speaker, obsessed with being a winner and completely out of touch with the real world. Toni Collete is his cigarette craving, bread winning wife. Steve Carrell steals the movie as the gay uncle who just tried to kill himself. Steve truly is the next Jim Carey, an actor who can be outwardly hilarious and internally hilarious, while staying in the realms of a character. Alan Arkin shines as the Heroin shooting, porn obsessed grandfather whose advice to have as much sex as possible is truly brilliant in its delivery. The children of this wild family are just as wild: Paul Dano plays a emo teen who hates everyone and has taken a vow of silence until he reaches his goal of being a pilot and Abigail Breslin plays the beauty pageant contestant and she will leave pretty much everybody falling in love with her childish innocence and amazing acting chops, Dakota Fanning better watch her back!
I really cannot say anything bad about the movie. Every single bit works-Pushing the vehicle, the horn not stopping, the mute son and the dead body in the trunk. None of it falls flat, but while you are laughing through the entire movie, you also realize something: No matter how odd they are or how much they get on each others nerves, these people love each other. Each character grows or changes in some, very real way. Greg Kinnear makes the most drastic change and is nearly effortless in his performance. The movie makes great points without having to hit the audience over the head to reach them. Seriously, go see this movie and if you don't enjoy it, I feel bad for you.
1 comment:
I loved little Miss Sunshine. I didnt get to see Clerks 2, so I thought it was the funniest movie all year. It was just absolutely brilliant in every way. Not only was it funny, but the messages in it were really important too.
Casting couldnt have been better.
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