2008 Woodie Awards
Little Miss Sunshine: A Brightly Shining Comedy
Katie Pederson
Issue date: 9/11/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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Looking for a little relief from the hectic churnings of the first few weeks of classes, I found myself wildly excited about a night out at one of Winter Park's true artistic gems, the Enzian theatre. Famous for its joint venture with the Florida Film festival, this quaint little restaurant/theatre is also known for breaking some of the best independent films of our day. And the Enzian has hit it big again with the wildly hilarious fall sensation Little Miss Sunshine.
Little Miss Sunshine is the story of a young girl named Olive (Abigail Breslin, Signs, Raising Helen) who dreams of one day winning the California Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant.
After a fortunate turn of events renders a fellow pageant qualifier unable to participate, Olive's dream seems like it could become a reality. Her family is ecstatic for her, but must combat their own predicaments and psychosis in order to get her from Arizona to California to compete.
Olive's father, Richard (Greg Kinnear, Stuck on You, Mystery Men) is a self-help motivational speaker, who's 9-step program has led him straight into bankruptcy and only complicated his martial problems with Olive's mother Sheryl (Toni Collette, About a Boy, The Sixth Sense).
Olive's brother Dwayne (Paul Dano, Fast Food Nation, The Girl Next Door) has recently taken a vow of silence it his pursuit of Nietzsche inspired enlightenment while her grandfather (Alan Arkin, The Rocketeer, Gattaca) splits his time between coaching Olive on her pageant talent and satisfying his cocaine addiction.
This delightfully dysfunctional bunch is further complicated when Uncle Frank (Steve Carell, The Office, The 40 Year Old Virgin), a renowned Proust scholar, is sent to live with Olive's family after a failed suicide attempt precipitated by a failed relationship with a male grad student.
All combine together with some sincerely unfortunate travel events to make a road trip chalked full of disaster and tears, gut wrenching laughs, and serious family bonding.
Little Miss Sunshine is the first full-length motion picture from director/producers Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who have made themselves famous for breaking artists like R.E.M. and the Red Hot Chili Peppers on their MTV show The Cutting Edge, and for later directing groundbreaking music videos and documentaries for others such as Oasis, Jane's Addiction, and Macy Gray. Little Miss Sunshine also marks the first mainstream hit for writer Michael Arndt.
The scary realities of child beauty pageants come alive in this fabulous flick and Little Miss Sunshine will have you laughing all the way home and hoping you could remember all of its tragically funny lines. Chalk another wonderful future cult classic up to the brilliance of independent film creative genius.
I give Little Miss Sunshine four out of five stars its dryly sarcastic and entertaining social commentary
Little Miss Sunshine is the story of a young girl named Olive (Abigail Breslin, Signs, Raising Helen) who dreams of one day winning the California Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant.
After a fortunate turn of events renders a fellow pageant qualifier unable to participate, Olive's dream seems like it could become a reality. Her family is ecstatic for her, but must combat their own predicaments and psychosis in order to get her from Arizona to California to compete.
Olive's father, Richard (Greg Kinnear, Stuck on You, Mystery Men) is a self-help motivational speaker, who's 9-step program has led him straight into bankruptcy and only complicated his martial problems with Olive's mother Sheryl (Toni Collette, About a Boy, The Sixth Sense).
Olive's brother Dwayne (Paul Dano, Fast Food Nation, The Girl Next Door) has recently taken a vow of silence it his pursuit of Nietzsche inspired enlightenment while her grandfather (Alan Arkin, The Rocketeer, Gattaca) splits his time between coaching Olive on her pageant talent and satisfying his cocaine addiction.
This delightfully dysfunctional bunch is further complicated when Uncle Frank (Steve Carell, The Office, The 40 Year Old Virgin), a renowned Proust scholar, is sent to live with Olive's family after a failed suicide attempt precipitated by a failed relationship with a male grad student.
All combine together with some sincerely unfortunate travel events to make a road trip chalked full of disaster and tears, gut wrenching laughs, and serious family bonding.
Little Miss Sunshine is the first full-length motion picture from director/producers Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who have made themselves famous for breaking artists like R.E.M. and the Red Hot Chili Peppers on their MTV show The Cutting Edge, and for later directing groundbreaking music videos and documentaries for others such as Oasis, Jane's Addiction, and Macy Gray. Little Miss Sunshine also marks the first mainstream hit for writer Michael Arndt.
The scary realities of child beauty pageants come alive in this fabulous flick and Little Miss Sunshine will have you laughing all the way home and hoping you could remember all of its tragically funny lines. Chalk another wonderful future cult classic up to the brilliance of independent film creative genius.
I give Little Miss Sunshine four out of five stars its dryly sarcastic and entertaining social commentary
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