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2006: Little Miss Sunshine
Out of the noughties, 2000 & 2006 were my favourite years. They produced some quality films. In 2006, I remember sitting down and watching The Departed, one of Scorcese's greatest acheivements, along with GoodFellas & Cape Fear (not his very best, just a personal favourite). Then I saw Paul Greengrass' controversial United 93, a thought provoking historical document about the bravery of the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93. Then there was this indie comedy about a dysfunctional family travelling across America in VW van to reach their daughter's beauty competition. Little Miss Sunshine makes me smile every time I watch it and it's one of the only films I could watch over and over again. Other runner ups for this year are Pixar's Cars & Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Babel. Other films I liked, but were never considered to be #1 are Saw III, Blood Diamond, Casino Royale & Letters To Iwo Jima.
The Hoovers are a dysfunctional family living in New Mexico. Dad Richard has started his own line of self help tapes and they aren't very good. Mother Sherylc is a pro-honesty overworked mother. Her homosexual brother Frank is a Proust scholar who has tried to commit suicide after being jilted by his student lover. Dwayne is Sheryl's son; he has taken a vow of silence until he is accepted into pilot school. Olive wants to be supermodel and spends days practising her routines. And last, but definitely not least, there's Grandpa. Grandpa is a heroin snorting, foul mouthed World War II veteran who's been kicked out of his retirement home. One evening, while the Hoovers are having dinner, Richard informs Sheryl & Olive of a phone message regarding "Little Miss Sunshine", a beauty contest Olive tried out for. They find out that Olive has been accepted for the pageant. The family sets out to Redondo Beach, California, where the contest is held. Along the way, the family runs into many eccentric situations, until they finally get to where they're going: Little Miss Sunshine.
Little Miss Sunshine is a hilarious film and a lot of the credit can be given to the script and the cast. The script is very well written and completely deserved the Oscar that it won. The cast is perfect. Greg Kinnear gives another good performance that could stand amongst his top 5. Toni Collette also performs well in a role that only she could play. Paul Dano doesn't say much, so it's hard to make a judgement on his performance. Steve Carell is brilliant as Frank, giving an admirable restrained performance. Abigail Breslin and Alan Arkin are the film's standouts as Olive & Grandpa respectively. Abigail Breslin gives a performance full of adolescent emotion and Alan Arkin is at his Oscar winning best.
I loved Little Miss Sunshine and I find it to be one of the best comedies of the noughties. Please excuse the short review as I have to be somewhere soon.
Out of the noughties, 2000 & 2006 were my favourite years. They produced some quality films. In 2006, I remember sitting down and watching The Departed, one of Scorcese's greatest acheivements, along with GoodFellas & Cape Fear (not his very best, just a personal favourite). Then I saw Paul Greengrass' controversial United 93, a thought provoking historical document about the bravery of the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93. Then there was this indie comedy about a dysfunctional family travelling across America in VW van to reach their daughter's beauty competition. Little Miss Sunshine makes me smile every time I watch it and it's one of the only films I could watch over and over again. Other runner ups for this year are Pixar's Cars & Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Babel. Other films I liked, but were never considered to be #1 are Saw III, Blood Diamond, Casino Royale & Letters To Iwo Jima.
The Hoovers are a dysfunctional family living in New Mexico. Dad Richard has started his own line of self help tapes and they aren't very good. Mother Sherylc is a pro-honesty overworked mother. Her homosexual brother Frank is a Proust scholar who has tried to commit suicide after being jilted by his student lover. Dwayne is Sheryl's son; he has taken a vow of silence until he is accepted into pilot school. Olive wants to be supermodel and spends days practising her routines. And last, but definitely not least, there's Grandpa. Grandpa is a heroin snorting, foul mouthed World War II veteran who's been kicked out of his retirement home. One evening, while the Hoovers are having dinner, Richard informs Sheryl & Olive of a phone message regarding "Little Miss Sunshine", a beauty contest Olive tried out for. They find out that Olive has been accepted for the pageant. The family sets out to Redondo Beach, California, where the contest is held. Along the way, the family runs into many eccentric situations, until they finally get to where they're going: Little Miss Sunshine.
Little Miss Sunshine is a hilarious film and a lot of the credit can be given to the script and the cast. The script is very well written and completely deserved the Oscar that it won. The cast is perfect. Greg Kinnear gives another good performance that could stand amongst his top 5. Toni Collette also performs well in a role that only she could play. Paul Dano doesn't say much, so it's hard to make a judgement on his performance. Steve Carell is brilliant as Frank, giving an admirable restrained performance. Abigail Breslin and Alan Arkin are the film's standouts as Olive & Grandpa respectively. Abigail Breslin gives a performance full of adolescent emotion and Alan Arkin is at his Oscar winning best.
I loved Little Miss Sunshine and I find it to be one of the best comedies of the noughties. Please excuse the short review as I have to be somewhere soon.