Little Miss Sunshine — Page 3

Yay for Olive

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This movie is so undeserving of its praise, it's depressing.

Every year there's an indy "road movie" where actors sit in a vehicle of choice and "act." They cost $4 to make, and they are all the same movie.

And every year a group of passionate movie goers discovers one of them, and proclaims it to be fresh, original, truthful, edgy, funny, heartbreaking, deep and meaningful.

And they are NONE of those things. They are a "chamber group" of actors reveling in self-gratifying behavior.

And that's what Little Miss Sunshine is, this year.

Oh, and another typical trait of these Indy road movies... They are COMPLETELY unbelievable and unrealistic in all aspects of plot and character development. LMS doesn't disappoint there, either.

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Updated On: 2/4/07 at 09:36 AM

I'm stuck in the middle with best12bars and everyone who loved it. I pretty much agree with a lot of what best12 said, especially the part about it not being original, because I feel like I've seen this kind of movie many times before. On the same hand, though, I think the performances are what elevate it from mediocre indie movie to Oscar contender. I think that strong performances by Bresln, Collette, Dano and Carrell make it seem like it's a better movie than it really is.

I gotta say, though, I liked it a lot better than The Departed.

Spoilers, in here somewhere I suppose...so all of you bitchers, consider yourselves warned!


I'm kind of torn about all the hooplah surrounding LMS. I really enjoyed the movie (saw it three times) and have the DVD and all, but I'm not sure I'd consider it award worthy (on any front, other than the SAG for Best Ensemble, which I think was totally derserved). There are so many things about this movie that are just ridiculously implausible.

-Love her though I do, does anyone really believe that Olive would have been the runner up at whatever beauty pagent her aunt had her entered in? I think Breslin was great, but unless they jumped it up a HUGE notch for the LMS pagent, it's just not even remotely believable that she'd have made it that far with her little red bathing suit and scrunchied ponytail.

-Love how not only they stole the body from the hospital, but the crew that picks him up in CA doesn't really seem to bat an eye about the fact that this body's wrapped up in a sheet in the back of the van! Plus, what the hell's going to happen to them afterwards? I'm sure they filled out paperwork with names, numbers, etc.

-Aren't eye tests pretty standard issue? Do we really believe that Dwayne would have gotten to age 16, 17, whatever, and never been tested/realized he was colorblind?

-Where the hell were they, in the middle of nowhere, that they just happened to be at the same gas station as Larry Sugarman and Frank's ex? The same with Richard's program guru being with in a moped ride that night, etc, etc.

But, I still loved it. I definitely think the performances manage to overcome things that in other movies might totally turn me off. I have a tendency to focus on some nitpicky little thing and blow it out of proportion (MAJOR SPOILERS FOR RECENT SCORSESE MOVIES TO FOLLOW: like DiCaprio's freakish ability to come away phyisically unscathed after debillitating accidents in Scorsese movies: an iron to the face in Gangs of New York and nary a scratch on the nose after his "to the bone lascerations" in The Aviator...I half expected him to get up and walk away from being shot point blank in the head at the end of The Departed!).



Yeah, I don't really know what the point of this was, other than to say that I definitely see where some people's gripes are about the movie, but it ultimately won me over. Though, I do kind of hope it loses out on Oscar night, because I'd anticipate some major backlash a la last year!

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The day fictional movies are supposed to be perfectly unquestionably realistic and make sense is the day they'll cease to be entertaining, no?

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Obviously, Rath, which is why I still found the movie to be a joy and I've watched it multiple times. However, I do think ther comes a point where you can only have so many "no way"-type moments in a movie...Plus, there are certainly different degrees of unbelievability that "work" for different types of movies. You have a different suspension of disbelief for a screwball comedy vs. a family drama vs. whatever other genre of movie.

And munk, I guess the fact that every other contestant at the LMS pagent was so carbon copy, on the same page, that it made it seem a bit more of a stretch that the preliminary contest Olive was in would have been that far removed as far as the type of girls that were involved and the degree to which they got into crazy pagent mode. Plus, I'm sure (since it sounds like the aunt was more of a pagent mom than Sheryl ever would be, maybe she got her more dolled up or something).

And I'm sure things are different all over the country, but in the town I grew up in, I remember having semi-routine check-ups at the nurse for basic eye tests/checks for scoliosis, etc. I don't specifically remember checking for color blindness, but it seems like that was in the drill. Then again, I'm sure that's not routine at all schools either, so...

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I know that I'd never been tested for being colorblind, except when I saw those little hidden number tests at a Science Center. So I didn't think that part was implausable. Plus, the kid DID had 20/20 vision, as displayed earlier in that scene, so he probably had never been to an eye doctor.

(Spoiler I guess?) I agree that I didn't really like any of the corpse mishaps...that just kind of annoyed me for some reason. I loved the rest of the movie.

I'm totally with you on the corpse thing - in fact, I hardly ever find that device amusing. It's just stupid and usually kind of desperate.

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Just watched this movie tonight.

Hilarious.

I throughly enjoyed it.

Abgail Breslin is adorable
That whole last scene at the pageant, I was cracking up.
The story was such a great one.
Steve Carell is fantastic in this movie.
I loved this movie so much.

" I mean high school? High school-those are your prime suffering years. You don't get better suffering than that. "

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Updated On: 2/24/07 at 08:26 PM

ClumsyDude15--Did it bug you at all that this movie is actually LESS realistic than Mary Poppins? A musical? With a nanny who slides up banisters and pops into chalk paintings?'

THAT was more believable than the plot to Little Miss Sunshine.

So was a nun twirling around like a dreidel on a mountaintop lip-syncing to a loud playback.

Or three young black girls, bursting into song and singing their way to the top of the pop charts, for that matter.

They're all more believable than Little Miss WTF.

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best12bars.

I really loved the movie.
It was really funny.

Believable, no.
But are half the movies coming out these days?

It was enjoyable and hilarious.
And thats all I expected.

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"I just hate it when people point to musicals and say "they're unrealistic"... when Little Miss Sunshine is more unrealistic than any crazy person bursting into song for no reason could ever be...

"Bitter... Party of One."

So be it... but the "logic" of mainstream America is so hypocritical and illogical. "

Agreed best12bars.

I hate it when people say musicals are unrealistic.
And anyone who says [insert popular movie of the past 10 years here ] is realistic, when its obviously not.

"Bitter... Party of One."

Make that two.

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Thanks, Clumsy...

*pours Clumsy a glass of fine wine at our "table for two"*


DG, that makes my second quote with you! I'm twice honored. Merci!

*adds a chair at the table and pours DG a single malt Scotch*

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