A few weeks ago we caught "Little Miss Sunshine" - we'd been looking forward to this one since first seeing the previews several months prior to its release. We loved it. Its a pretty "off the wall" comedy/drama about an extraordinarily dysfunctional family that ends up taking an ill-fated road trip through California when the 7 or 8 year old daughter makes it into the national Little Miss Sunshine contest. The family includes a motivational speaker (the father, played by Greg Kinnear), a suicidal Proust scholar (The Office's Steve Carrell, in a characteristically great performance), and a teenage devotee of Nietzsche who has taken a vow of silence. I don't want to go into any more detail because this movie really is worth seeing - it is an endearing study of family dynamics and how members of a family support one another, no matter how flawed they may be.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Recent Movies: Little Miss Sunshine
While I'll still likely post plenty about politics, simply because it is a topic I'm increasingly interested in, I also want to guide this blog a little more towards pop cultural topics as well. I'm going to try posting about some of the movies we see (there haven't been very many lately) and we'll see if any of them are "discussion-worthy."
A few weeks ago we caught "Little Miss Sunshine" - we'd been looking forward to this one since first seeing the previews several months prior to its release. We loved it. Its a pretty "off the wall" comedy/drama about an extraordinarily dysfunctional family that ends up taking an ill-fated road trip through California when the 7 or 8 year old daughter makes it into the national Little Miss Sunshine contest. The family includes a motivational speaker (the father, played by Greg Kinnear), a suicidal Proust scholar (The Office's Steve Carrell, in a characteristically great performance), and a teenage devotee of Nietzsche who has taken a vow of silence. I don't want to go into any more detail because this movie really is worth seeing - it is an endearing study of family dynamics and how members of a family support one another, no matter how flawed they may be.
A few weeks ago we caught "Little Miss Sunshine" - we'd been looking forward to this one since first seeing the previews several months prior to its release. We loved it. Its a pretty "off the wall" comedy/drama about an extraordinarily dysfunctional family that ends up taking an ill-fated road trip through California when the 7 or 8 year old daughter makes it into the national Little Miss Sunshine contest. The family includes a motivational speaker (the father, played by Greg Kinnear), a suicidal Proust scholar (The Office's Steve Carrell, in a characteristically great performance), and a teenage devotee of Nietzsche who has taken a vow of silence. I don't want to go into any more detail because this movie really is worth seeing - it is an endearing study of family dynamics and how members of a family support one another, no matter how flawed they may be.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
this was an abosultely fantastic movie! two thumbs way up! the laugh out loud comedy of the last decade!
Glad to see someone else that enjoyed it - I found it to be hilarious, but also enjoyed the fact that it wasn't JUST funny . . . that I actually cared about the characters and enjoyed seeing them support one another. I find that more and more I like movies where the "heroes" are flawed in some way (lots of ways in this case) because it seems more true to life.
jake,
My wife and I walked out of this movie after 15 minutes… I think most people either love or hate Steve Carrell's humor… The grandpa's f-bomb littered cursing rant at the beginning, was too much for us and simply was not funny. It just didn’t seem worth watching. Sorry to disagree with you again.
Steve
Jake,
I apparently misplaced your e-mail address, so I am posting this here. This is University of Chicago Divinity School forum I thought you might find interesting.
Improvisation and Ethics: Improvising Music, Improvising Ethics"
An essay by Daniel Groll, University of Chicago
http://marty-center.uchicago.edu/webforum/index.shtml.
Steve,
Not sure if you'll read this - sorry I didn't reply sooner, but I hadn't noticed your post. Its quite alright that we disagree again . . . isn't that what makes life interesting?
You may be right about Steve Carell - my wife and I both thoroughly enjoy his humor. We are particularly big fans of The Office - we enjoyed the British version before the American version had been released, and have enjoyed watching the American series develop its own identity. I would say, however, that Steve Carell's performance in Little Miss Sunshine was not typical of what I have seen from him.
Regarding the movie - I certainly respect your decision to walk out. The grandpa's rant may have been a little over the top, but honestly it did not bother Cari or I in the same way it did you. Had you seen the entire film, I think you may have found more to like, but perhaps not. :)
Post a Comment