Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Buy Little Miss Sunshine [2006]
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Yes, this story of a dysfunctional family taking the youngest daughter to an egregiously unpleasant beauty pageant is heart-warming, uplifting and gently subversive.
Yes, it’s quite funny.
Yes, Alan Arkin excels as a foul-mouthed granddad, spewing invective and bizarrely inappropriate sex advice at the kids.
Yes, Toni Collette puts in yet another wonderfully natural performance, slipping gracefully and, indeed, beautifully from older sister to younger mother.
Yes, Abigail Breslin is a startling find as the undeniably chubby, yet still fearlessly beautiful, daughter.
Yes, the denouement is an extravagant, even riotous, piece of cinematic storytelling.
Yes, it’s great to see this kind of from-the-heart indie filmmaking on the big screen. Yes, it’s great that it sold for $10 million at Sundance.
But no, it’s not that good.
No, it’s not the best movie of the year.
No, it wasn’t even the best movie in the month it came out (take a bow, Children of Men).
So no, it won’t be cool if it wins the Oscar. It’ll be a sad comment on the year in movies that was 2006 - and an even sadder comment on the state of the awards themselves.
