Little Miss Sunshine
Aug. 20th, 2006 11:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatPer ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
emberslog and buffyanntator's separate but enthusiastic recommendations, I finally saw Little Miss Sunshine with my pal, Wales, today.
It may be the best film I've seen all year. If not the best, certainly the funniest and the most refreshingly honest. It is a film about a struggling family who drives their little girl in a broken down bus to the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pagent. And trust me on this much, it is not what you think. A black comedy with hints of satire and realism. Made me happy and comforted me. Have tucked it away as one of my "happy films".
The critic for Entertainment Weekly, who is a bit of a sourpuss, compares it unfavorably with My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It's nothing like that film, except for the family bit. Where BFGW was manipulative and stereotypical, Little Miss plays with stereotypes and throws them in your face.
I can't say anything more about this movie without spoiling you. Except that I adored it.
And that it is an intelligent comedy - another distinction from BFGW, which really wasn't. I liked BFGW, but it was not an intelligent comedy. Little Miss - has a couple of humorous treats for intellectuals without being pretentious. Another rarity in this day and age. This is a thinking person's comedy with something in it to make everyone laugh with giddy delight.
Again, the best movie I've seen this year, including the ones I rented on DVD.
Other flicks:
Constantine - not as bad as I expected. But somewhat silly over-all. Visually stunning in places, stupid in others. And yes, I still think Keanu Reeves was miscast - too pretty and clean-cut for the role of rugged world-weary demon exorcist. Rachel Weize and the woman who played Gabriel (whose name I've spaced - but you know her as the witch in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe)
are fantastic. If they'd cast Scean Bean, Clive Owen, James Marsters, or Nicolas Cage - I think it would have worked better.
V for Vendetta - brilliant film, but disturbingly so. Still not sure I'm up to writing a review on it yet.
emberslog and buffyanntator's separate but enthusiastic recommendations, I finally saw Little Miss Sunshine with my pal, Wales, today. It may be the best film I've seen all year. If not the best, certainly the funniest and the most refreshingly honest. It is a film about a struggling family who drives their little girl in a broken down bus to the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pagent. And trust me on this much, it is not what you think. A black comedy with hints of satire and realism. Made me happy and comforted me. Have tucked it away as one of my "happy films".
The critic for Entertainment Weekly, who is a bit of a sourpuss, compares it unfavorably with My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It's nothing like that film, except for the family bit. Where BFGW was manipulative and stereotypical, Little Miss plays with stereotypes and throws them in your face.
I can't say anything more about this movie without spoiling you. Except that I adored it.
And that it is an intelligent comedy - another distinction from BFGW, which really wasn't. I liked BFGW, but it was not an intelligent comedy. Little Miss - has a couple of humorous treats for intellectuals without being pretentious. Another rarity in this day and age. This is a thinking person's comedy with something in it to make everyone laugh with giddy delight.
Again, the best movie I've seen this year, including the ones I rented on DVD.
Other flicks:
Constantine - not as bad as I expected. But somewhat silly over-all. Visually stunning in places, stupid in others. And yes, I still think Keanu Reeves was miscast - too pretty and clean-cut for the role of rugged world-weary demon exorcist. Rachel Weize and the woman who played Gabriel (whose name I've spaced - but you know her as the witch in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe)
are fantastic. If they'd cast Scean Bean, Clive Owen, James Marsters, or Nicolas Cage - I think it would have worked better.
V for Vendetta - brilliant film, but disturbingly so. Still not sure I'm up to writing a review on it yet.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-08-21 05:26 pm (UTC)And I agree with your friend, not only wouldn't the pagent have worked, but most of the film depended on the little batch of relative sanity that was Olive. She was so authentic, so completely unaffected, that she made everything work. I'm not sure I can think of many child actors who ever did as well (usually they are 'acting' so damn cute).
LOL; okay - meme of great child actors:
Hayley Mills in Tiger Bay
Tatum O'Niel in Paper Moon
Natalie Wood in Miracle on 47th Street
Anna Paquin in The Piano
I'm having a terrible time thinking of any boys who avoided the 'cute' thing, certainly Ron Howard was totally sacrine, as was that dread 'Home Alone' child.... but actually Haley Joel Osment was really good in 'Sixth Sense' and really made that film work.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-21 11:00 pm (UTC)Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet
Isak Eisenmen in Escape from Witch Mountain (okay, I may be a tad biased on that one, he was my first celebrity crush, yes almost but not quite pre-dating Davey Jones.)
Lucas Haas in Lady in White - who actually did a better job than Haley Joel Osmount.
the kid in the film "My Life as a Dog"
Christian Bale who may have outdone Lucas Haas in Empire of the Sun (yes, I've been adoring Bale for a while, one of the few child actors to break into an adult career).
Tatum O'Neil in Bad News Bears.
Jodi Foster in Taxie Driver
River Phoenix in Stand by Me (also Jerry O'Connell (guy in Crossing Jordan), Will Wheaton)
Leonardo DiCaprio in What's Eating Gilbert Grape
the actress who played the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird (I think she may have been the youngest to be nominated for an Oscar, not certain)
no subject
Date: 2006-08-22 12:27 am (UTC)I particularly loved the kid in 'My Life as a Dog'
actually I loved the kid in 'The Tin Drum' too, but I was kind of put off by how the child was exposed to so much adult stuff in the making of the movie.