The Daily Bloon

I feel really bad. I’ve been meaning to write this review ever since I saw the movie. The thing is, I kinda saw the movie 2 weeks ago (!). So I’m doing my best to recollect my impressions. Here we go.

Title: Little Miss Sunshine
Genre (Movie): Independent film (That should tell you enough, right?)
Description: A family that puts the ‘fun’ back in ‘dysfunctional’ goes on a massive road trip because they’re little girl has qualified for a beauty pageant. Hilarity ensues.
Quickrating: 9.5/10
At first, the only thing I knew about this movie was that Steve Carell was in it, and that it featured a VW bus. I saw a single ad for this while watching another movie, and it looked cool, but it quickly receded from my memory. Then one of my friends saw it by chance (he missed his showing of Snakes on a Plane) and relayed back to me that it was one of the best movies he’s ever seen. “Odd”, I thought to myself. “Perhaps it’s worth checking out?”
This, too, quickly became another dusty memory on my brain shelf.
Then, one night, I was at a theater with friends, and we had no idea what to see.
Well, no, that’s a lie. The girls wanted to see some generic clone of Save the Last Dance and every other dancing movie that’s ever been made. I, on the other hand, can smell certain types of pure shit from a mile away. I was trying to get them to change their minds to something, anything…
And my wandering eyes stumbled upon a showing of Little Miss Sunshine.
Thank Jesus.

Little Miss Sunshine is truly an indie movie. It deals with a rather impoverished family. The mother is stressed and kinda crazy, but probably the most normal person in the cast. The father is a motivational speaker. You know, the ones that come to your school and talk about the plan to make you all winners and feel good and crap? Except he’s kinda jobless right now. There’s a daughter, and she’s a slightly chubby girl who is obsessed with beauty competitions. The son is a great fan of Neitzsche, and has taken a vow of silence until he acheives his goal of becoming a jet pilot. When the grandfather who lives with the family is introduced, the first 10 seconds of him you see involve him sniffing crack. And Steve Carell plays the mother’s brother, who has been put in a hospital for trying to kill himself.

And these 5 people must drive in a broken VW bus to California so that the girl can participate in a beauty pageant.
Mmm, I can smell the awkward like horse dung on your shoe.

As is the case with all good independent movies, the acting is truly top notch. Generally when relatively famous actors take independent films like this, it’s for the quality of the script and not for the money. So you end up with uncorrupt objectives. It makes for a great viewing experience if the movie is well-done.

I really liked the sets in this movie. The color schemes are fantastic, and really lend to the imagery of each character and how different they are from each other. The camera work is great, especially in the first 5 minutes of the movie, which is primarily dedicated to introducing everyone. Plus, one of my friends who is a fantastic photographer continually mentioned how well-done the filmography was over the course of the movie.

The most fascinating thing about this film is the strange sine curve of happy/sad that can change within moments. The film manages to change a very tragic scene into one of the funniest parts of the entire movie. There are parts that will have you in hysterics, followed by a scene that made people a row above me cry. I am at a loss as to categorize it as primarily a comedy or primarily a tragedy. It’s a strange, strange mixture of both, but it has a very happy ending that makes you want to hug somebody.

I really recommend catching this one once it comes into Blockbuster. It’s an absolutely fantastic movie, and one of my favorite of all time, but it’s certainly not necessary to be watched on a big screen. It has a wonderful conglomeration of the most awkward moments you could possibly think of. In fact, it actually managed to squeeze several most awkward scenarios that I’ve come up with in my own head quite easily. And they still made coherent, even complementary sense in the movie. Really, the only reason it even lost those .5 points in my quickrating is because it was slow for maybe 2 10-minute intervals. And those were followed by some of the greatest scenes in the film.
Besides, everyone loves Steve Carell. He’s just so damn hot.
Or funny. One of the two.

Sheryl: “I’m so glad you’re still here.”
Frank: “Well, that makes one of us.”