Monday, September 04, 2006
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Director: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
Should you see it? Yes, yes, yes! It is the Napoleon Dynamite of 2006 – a strange and quirky comedy that has you laughing from start to finish and with a climatic dance routine to rival Napoleon’s.
You know what, despite all the talk about Little Miss Sunshine being a comedy about dysfunctional families, it is not. Or if it is, it is indirectly so because Little Miss Sunshine is about exposing and ridiculing child beauty pageants and the families who enter there little girls in these sick, sick events. The directors needed to create a dysfunctional family to act as a yard stick with which to measure the depravity of the kiddy beauty contest.
What do I mean? O.K.: the directors show us this severely dysfunctional (and hilarious!) family for the first ¾ of the film. They are saying look, the grandfather is a heroine addict and offers his grandson inappropriate advise, such encouraging sex with lots of women, the father is a bankrupt business failure who offers his children cold advise from his motivational program instead of love, the mother is unsupportive, the son has not spoken for months and hates his family, the uncle is a depressed suicide survivor. Their car is falling apart, the parents’ marriage is falling apart, and they steal their own grandfather’s body from the hospital for god’s sake!
Can you imagine any worse family?!
We get our answer in the last ¼ of the film when we see the Little Miss Sunshine contest. Yes! These families who enter their little girls in this grotesque contest are far worse than Olive’s family. Dressing your 10 year old like a mini-tart and flaunting their pre-menstrual sexuality is far more depraved than heroine taking grandfathers and body snatching fathers.
Yes, but what about Olive’s final dance scene where she is stripping, a routine her grandfather taught her for god’s sake?
Yes, an even clearer example of my point. Even as Olive’s dance is an outright stripper routine she performs it with sincerity and innocence. Olive has no idea this is a ‘sexy’ dance, it is simply the dance her grandfather taught her, a grandfather who loved her as deeply and she loved him. By contrast the other girls are far more overt and conscious of their sexuality in the way they move, smile and shake it. And it is quite horrifying, while Olive remains sweet and loveable. And everyone freaks-out because Olive is (unknowingly) making overt what everyone else wants to deny – the contest’s sexuality.
Yes but what about Olive’s family, they brought her to this event and had to fight to get her in the show in the first place?
Another point in my favor. They had no idea what they were getting themselves into. They were expecting something along the lines of a school play but instead got Little Miss Glittery Tart. And when it is clear that she is no where near ready to perform at the level of sophistication required they first try and protect Olive by talking her out of going on, and then when her dance is ironically deemed inappropriate they further protect Olive by dancing along with her rather than taking her off stage. It is a surprising moment of tenderness and catharsis for the family. By contrast the other families brought their girls to the contest with their eyes wide open, with their make-up out and their sexuality on display. In other words they consciously and willingly brought their children to this horror show.
And by the end of the film you know Olive is lucky to have the family she does. The final image captures this idea. Olive is in the broken down van but she is being pushed by the rest of the family and as the car starts they jump in to join her and return home. A home with people that will truly sacrifice to get Olive to her dream and protect her with all they have when it doesn’t work out.
How many of us are lucky enough to be surrounded by that kind of dysfunction?
Should you see it? Yes, yes, yes! It is the Napoleon Dynamite of 2006 – a strange and quirky comedy that has you laughing from start to finish and with a climatic dance routine to rival Napoleon’s.
You know what, despite all the talk about Little Miss Sunshine being a comedy about dysfunctional families, it is not. Or if it is, it is indirectly so because Little Miss Sunshine is about exposing and ridiculing child beauty pageants and the families who enter there little girls in these sick, sick events. The directors needed to create a dysfunctional family to act as a yard stick with which to measure the depravity of the kiddy beauty contest.
What do I mean? O.K.: the directors show us this severely dysfunctional (and hilarious!) family for the first ¾ of the film. They are saying look, the grandfather is a heroine addict and offers his grandson inappropriate advise, such encouraging sex with lots of women, the father is a bankrupt business failure who offers his children cold advise from his motivational program instead of love, the mother is unsupportive, the son has not spoken for months and hates his family, the uncle is a depressed suicide survivor. Their car is falling apart, the parents’ marriage is falling apart, and they steal their own grandfather’s body from the hospital for god’s sake!
Can you imagine any worse family?!
We get our answer in the last ¼ of the film when we see the Little Miss Sunshine contest. Yes! These families who enter their little girls in this grotesque contest are far worse than Olive’s family. Dressing your 10 year old like a mini-tart and flaunting their pre-menstrual sexuality is far more depraved than heroine taking grandfathers and body snatching fathers.
Yes, but what about Olive’s final dance scene where she is stripping, a routine her grandfather taught her for god’s sake?
Yes, an even clearer example of my point. Even as Olive’s dance is an outright stripper routine she performs it with sincerity and innocence. Olive has no idea this is a ‘sexy’ dance, it is simply the dance her grandfather taught her, a grandfather who loved her as deeply and she loved him. By contrast the other girls are far more overt and conscious of their sexuality in the way they move, smile and shake it. And it is quite horrifying, while Olive remains sweet and loveable. And everyone freaks-out because Olive is (unknowingly) making overt what everyone else wants to deny – the contest’s sexuality.
Yes but what about Olive’s family, they brought her to this event and had to fight to get her in the show in the first place?
Another point in my favor. They had no idea what they were getting themselves into. They were expecting something along the lines of a school play but instead got Little Miss Glittery Tart. And when it is clear that she is no where near ready to perform at the level of sophistication required they first try and protect Olive by talking her out of going on, and then when her dance is ironically deemed inappropriate they further protect Olive by dancing along with her rather than taking her off stage. It is a surprising moment of tenderness and catharsis for the family. By contrast the other families brought their girls to the contest with their eyes wide open, with their make-up out and their sexuality on display. In other words they consciously and willingly brought their children to this horror show.
And by the end of the film you know Olive is lucky to have the family she does. The final image captures this idea. Olive is in the broken down van but she is being pushed by the rest of the family and as the car starts they jump in to join her and return home. A home with people that will truly sacrifice to get Olive to her dream and protect her with all they have when it doesn’t work out.
How many of us are lucky enough to be surrounded by that kind of dysfunction?
Comments:
<< Home
My favorite line of your review is, "And everyone freaks-out because Olive is (unknowingly) making overt what everyone else wants to deny – the contest’s sexuality." So true! It's the masking of beauty pageants in a "wholesome" package that is the most despicable. How many times have we heard that Ms. America is the largest sponsor of scholarships for women in America? Ugh! I'd rather be sponsored as a dumb jock than a sashed-up tart.
While I loved the movie and laughed my head off, I couldn't help but be distracted by the obvious plot elements. The coincidental meeting of the uncle's nemesis in the drugstore JUST as he's buying porno? Too much of a stretch and not needed, especially given the talents of Steve Carrell to sell the character.
The oblivious cop who doesn't notice a body (possibly odorous?) in the trunk of their car because he's distracted by porn? Perhaps these elements were blunt attempts to show how sex blinds us, but in such a clever and unique movie, I thought they could have done without the scenes.
Post a Comment
While I loved the movie and laughed my head off, I couldn't help but be distracted by the obvious plot elements. The coincidental meeting of the uncle's nemesis in the drugstore JUST as he's buying porno? Too much of a stretch and not needed, especially given the talents of Steve Carrell to sell the character.
The oblivious cop who doesn't notice a body (possibly odorous?) in the trunk of their car because he's distracted by porn? Perhaps these elements were blunt attempts to show how sex blinds us, but in such a clever and unique movie, I thought they could have done without the scenes.
# posted by 
: 7:16 PM
: 7:16 PM << Home
