Little Miss Sunshine

I can only hope that when Oscar time comes early next year, this little indy-film-that-could will be rewarded as one of the best pictures of the year. There have been very few pictures this summer that have stirred me into my wallet, but the positive-by-a-landslide reviews for this movie got me to dish out the $6.25 for a matinee, and it was money well spent. Hell, in hind sight, I would have paid $10 to see this... Three times over.

Dysfunctional families have long been a gold mine for comedies, as have road-trips (think National Lampoon's Vacation, or the more "inspiring" titled Road Trip)--so what you have with Little Miss Sunshine is a goldmine combining the two. The only only knock on it, though it's not - really, is the recent JonBenet case revelation, as the end of this film shows similarly aged girls competing in the film's titular "Little Miss Sunshine" competition in California. There's just something awfully disturbing to see 7 and 8 year old girls all made up to look three times their age.

While I laughed through the movie here and there, I marveled at how the writer was able to shift audiences back and forth between bittersweet and comedy as if by remote control. It's to this affect that the movie's last ten minutes or so left me laughing in a cathartic way that I've not had since watching There's Something About Mary for the first time in a theater eight years ago. I won't spoil what happens, but it's so well handled and deserves kudos for not only providing uproarus laughter, but for going beyond that and finding a much deeper and richer note, one which will undoubtedly leave those in attendance applauding.