Little Miss Sunshine
Considering it has been well over a month since I saw this film I'll have to see how much I actually remember...
Apparently this film received a lot of hype when it came out. Considering I live in a news and entertainment vacuum without cable I wasn't aware of the film itself for a while and then saw some people posting news about the actors in the ohnotheydidnt community when I was bored and surfing it. So I decided to check it out.
It features Steve Carell though I wouldn't call him the star. He played his character amazingly well but each person in the story was equally important. Greg Kinnear is in tons of films I can't remember offhand but he's the kind of actor that just seems to be around in a lot of them. However, his performance in this film really showed off his acting abilities instead of just being some random character people forget when they're done the movie. I liked and hated him in this film and thought he played his party very well. Toni Collette is another actor I'm sure I've seen in tons of films but this is the first time she stood out. Her character was very human. The same goes for Alan Arkin.
I LOVED the kids. Paul Dano and Abigail Breslin were fantastic and even seemed like a real brother and sister. When Dano finds out he is colourblind and unable to be a pilot... oh my god. I felt like I'd been physically hit. The poor kid.
Watching Steve Carell deal with his ex was also painful. Talk about putting salt into the wound. There were quite a few painful moments in this movie but they somehow managed to make it a relatively cheerful film. Though I personally think they went too far by putting the dead grandfather in the trunk. I was really enjoying a fairly believable film up until that point. That kind of killed the believable part for me. Call me crazy hah.
Watching Olive prepping around the other Little Miss Sunshine girls was heart wrenching. She was already concerning herself with her weight and looks at far too young of an age and I wanted to reach through the screen and save her from it. However, instead of ending up traumatized, she does her awesome routine and ends up freaking out all the creepy pageant moms. And the whole family gets in on the fun. It was a great oddball way of saving her.
Overall I really did enjoy the film though I agree with what one person said about it. It's a hollywood friendly indie film. So people who have no idea what original and unique cinema can be would find this film very refreshing and thus, it ends up creating a lot of hype and press over it. So while it was a good movie, I think it was overhyped though that's not necessarily a bad thing if it gets people interested in more dynamic films.