Little Miss Sunshine must be the best movie ever made, right?

It drives me crazy that nobody will watch it when I tell them to until 2 years later on HBO, maybe. Great movies are so much better at the time of their release and on the big screen.

FYI, I searched "little miss sunshine" and found no threads w/ that in the title. I searched it as Keywords and broke ILX. If I could've found the thread which surely must exist, I would have.

the russians are coming the russians are coming

wait until dark

the heart is a lonely hunter

catch-22

last of the red hot lovers

freebie and the bean

rafferty and the gold dust twins

fire sale

the in-laws

simon

chu chu and the philly flash

glengarry glen ross

slums of beverly hills

(cuz if it is, then it might be the best movie ever made)

Haha! Yes, in the same way that Titanic was exactly like fucking Watership Down.

http://movies.go.com/movies/review?name=little-miss-sunshine_2006&genre=comedy&studio=Fox%20Searchlight%20Pictures

The quotes and reviews at the bottom are right on, too, except Premiere.

both movies even have dead grandparent in the car!

http://filmbrain.typepad.com/filmbrain/harrytonto3.jpg

The trailer makes it look very twee/indie (like that Thumbsucker movie last year).

definitely way the hell better than Thumbsucker

dude so true

and they are all made by rich rock video makers. okay, not all. it just feels like it sometimes.

does life sux 4 u or something?

Then don't see this then...

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B00026L8O4.01._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V1084474033_.jpg

-- chaki (chaki.tim...), August 6th, 2006.

I just saw this movie, and fuck if that wasn't exactly what I was just going to post. I mean, strip away the Proust and Nietzsche references, and that's pretty much what you've got.

Not that that's a bad thing. I LIKED NL's Vacation.

Also, the trailer for "Running With Scissors" made me think "The Octopus and the Dolphin" or something.

ugh. exactly. reminded me of 'my big fat greek wedding' in that respect and also with some awful, awshucks slapstick humor.

The beauty pageant host was genuinely creepy (and great), though.

I don't know. I never read the book.

I think a lot of the hate stems from that feeling of being pandered to, and of the movie trying to present itself as smarter than it really is (Proust, etc.). The movie also had a fair share of feelgoody cliches in spite of its obvious attempts not only to avoid them, but to declare itself in opposition to them.

Quirky indie family films are the new quirky Irish village movies. Often they're fun and entertaining, but they pretend to be more and some people inevitably get annoyed by this.

Ha ha, OTM!

No, no. Everyone, in reality, is endearingly quirky. Not realizing this simple fact of life is an indication that you are an insincere, hateful person.

Addressing the previous complaint about every single character being "endearingly quirky," there is nobody in that movie who wasn't simply realistic. Whether or not you find them "endearingly quirky" or whether you find the phrase "endearingly quirky" an acceptable choice of words is a matter of temperment. It being realistic, where is the fault? Sure, It gets a bit silly at the end with the dad smashing through anything in his way, but a nut like that was about to crack given enough pressure and it sure was an unusual set of circumstances. Unrealistic? Not really. But, what if it strikes you that way? In entertainment, it's not unusual to tell an outrageous story. If anything, I think the "cliché" aspects of the movie were more of a lighthearted approach to harsh reality, expressed in the simplistic statement, "do what you like and fuck the rest," also a very realistic POV, rather than somehow a failure of the writing.

"Little Miss Sunshine," which will certainly be nommed for best comedy/musical pic at the Globes, maybe even land in the top five at the Oscars. Like "Crash," it's holding on and on amazingly at the box office. After six weeks in release, its revenues continue to climb, reaping more than $7 million last weekend.

Wow. It's being compared to Crash? I can only hope!

there is nobody in that movie who wasn't simply realistic.

It being realistic, where is the fault?

nut like that was about to crack given enough pressure and it sure was an unusual set of circumstances. Unrealistic? Not really

"do what you like and fuck the rest," also a very realistic POV

Uh, you're the only person who has used the word "realistic" or "reality" anywhere in this thread. I don't really get why you're harping on that term, and what it's got to do with anything. How familiar are you with the medium of film?

Original Screenplay is possible, though.

YOU CAN NOT FOOL STEVE SHASTA ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO MOVIES SHOT IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO EPIC SURF SPOTS.

A lot of the laughs were in the details: the broken-down VW microbus, the bouffanted pageant organizer, the ice-cream-loving beauty queen, Olive's implied mid-pageant picking at the butt of her swimsuit (really, what little kid hasn't done that?), the young contestant getting spray-tanned backstage.

Not sure why this makes the movie awesome.

Not sure why this makes the movie awesome.

It doesn't - it's just a funny thing to address in a movie, is all, especially seeing as Olive's character is the antithesis of the teased-out, fake-tanned, over-lipsticked, JonBenet-style pageant-bot. And like I said, you don't actually see her picking out said garment.
It made my girlfriend and I chuckle because it's such a universal childhood memory.

Why would the obviously loving grandpa subject the little girl to almost certain contempt and ridicule by teaching her a striptease routine for her pageant?

Maybe because he knew the whole beauty pageant thing was for chumps?

Tantrum, the L in ILX is sarcastic.

And you're a genius with a scintillatingly insightful screen name.

And so he manipulated his trusting granddaughter -- who, by extension, is a chump herself, according to your definition -- into performing that routine? If the film had had the courage to suggest this instead of forcing us to laugh at Arkin's pottymouth, I'd accept your interpretation.

I think that in Grandpa's mind a woman dancing solo onstage = striptease or burlesque. Remember, he is a drug-addled old horndog, and he comes from a time where "respectable" girls would only have danced while paired off with men in a social setting.

Which is not to suggest that he has an inappropriate attraction to his granddaughter. There's nothing in the movie that implies that, and the routine that he teaches Olive is total pantomime - it's comically unsexy, and quite deliberately so.

"Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion!"

It is her, isn't it?

Weird: the reaction to this I had, and the one that seemed to be coming from a lot of corners, was more surprise / excitement that all the now-annoying standards of this type of film were suddenly ... working really well. There seemed to be a common experience of really really wanting to begrudge it your favor, but being completely won over nonetheless. (The climax is actually really good with this: it's incredibly antic, but keeps it on just enough of a leash to be kinda thrilling; it's sentimental, but in a way that's justified and off-kilter enough to feel satisfying; there's some kind of really deft touch going on there.)

All my more-or-less trustworthy friends (and the dumb ones too) were like, "Noooo! It's so gooood! It's, like, the best movie I've seen all year!" So, I finally hit up Netflix, sat down and watched the damn thing with my GF last week.

We both hated it from the ultra-programmatic opening scenes, and it only seemed to get worse as it rolled along. Ha ha - look at the old man swear and do drugs! It's funny when old people do stuff like that. But sshhh a minute for the prosaic beauty of the American interstate landscape... And it's also a super-deep movie because everybody learns something about themselves. I even learned something! I learned that only contemptible white-trash boobs go to kiddie beauty pageants. We hate them. And family really is SO important, isn't it?

I mean, the kid stripping to "Superfreak" was kinda/sorta almost funny, but totally forced and overdone at the same time.

The Squid and the Whale is vaguely similar (textbook indie, black comedy, life lessons, domestic quirkiness) but, like, a BILLION times better and more honest. Hell, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes we watched later that night were better and more honest...

Whole movie, right there.

The first time Carell's character reminds everyone that he's the foremost Proust scholar or whatever, it's a failed joke. Not funny at all, really reaching at characters that haven't been developed. The second time he says it, it's just sad, because the movie hasn't developed its characters at the 75-minute mark any more than at the 15-minute mark.

i was looking at a list of new releases and read the imdb entry for that zach braff movie 'the last kiss' and realized how much i hope that the indie/romance/let's-look-at-the-amazing-simple-beauty-of-the-world-no-really-look-at-it-NO-LOOK-HERE-I"LL-HOLD -YOUR-HEAD film thing is coming to an end.
yes, indie rock made it big and now it's popular and blah blah and then hollywood got it but now it's time for modern psychrock people, it's time.

Ummm, or something. Anything. Just enough with the cutey-pie sentimental bullshit dressed up as "independence."

Umm isn't his character arc drawn precisely along the lines of his own crappy motivational steps? I seem to remember laughing about that at some point.

Mmmmmaybe. You were high when you watched it, right?

It's supposed to be, but...

Yes, but WHY? HOW? What humanity is there in this? It's totally implausible.

But more than that, it's hollow. Who cares?

It would have. I don't know your credentials, but I would trust you to write this movie over whatever dunderhead wrote it the first time.

No, it was "The #1 Proust Expert" or something like that, that mirrored something he said exactly in the dialog. Which makes it terribly obvious. And really, really lame.

The more I talk about this movie, the less I like it.

(The opposite is true for a good movie.)

That movie made me want to kill everyone. But I digress.

Umm just for the record the situation here seemed to be far less about flying freak flags and more about protecting the kid -- the exact same impulse as eating the ice cream earlier -- and I think that small difference is part of why I found myself swallowing those stock elements much more readily than I thought I would.

Is that the first time that's ever been said?

No, it was "The #1 Proust Expert" or something like that, that mirrored something he said exactly in the dialog. Which makes it terribly obvious. And really, really lame.

It was actually both which made it pretty funny because 1. he was dethroned from his completely unimportant postion 2. a book about Proust being a bestseller is pretty absurd.

-- jaymc (jmcunnin...), September 6th, 2006 3:56 PM. (jaymc) (link)

He got a SAG nomination today.

I got the intended joke

2. a book about Proust being a bestseller is pretty absurd.

Well, it would be, in a different movie. It's not in this one. For that to be funny would require things that this movie doesn't have, or doesn't sustain. Like a sense of absurdity. If this was a Marx Brothers movie, yeah, that would be funny. But this movie's middling between family comedy and "wacky" cuts it off at the knees. It ends up being crap.

That's such a "safe" thing to say.

(Enrique, you'd loathe it)

This sort of criticism seems so empty to me, because you can make similar snarky statements about ANY film and make it sound stupid.

I actually think the movie leaves this open a bit, esp considering the grandfather's comments about "the young stuff" being "the best stuff". (I realize there's a difference between 15-year-olds and 7-year-olds though, yes.) You're probably right about the grandfather just having strippers/burlesque dancers as his main reference point for women dancing.

Some of my favourite bits are in the family's first dinner: the dad praising Dwayne for sticking to his goal of not talking, Carell's deadpan "Was he always like this?" and Dwayne's cool nod, "You fell in love with a boy? That's silly!" Also the ice cream stuff. Also "Where's your grandpa?"/"He's in the trunk of our bus."

I'm sure at least a couple of actor/supporting noms, maybe script.

A-ron Hubbard (Hurting) on Sunday, 27 February 2000 02:34 (7 years ago)

so much hate for this film!

i liked it way more than i thought i would. gets better as it goes along and was shot in sequence, are these 2 things related? hmm.

gets better hideously worse as it goes along and was shot in sequence, are these 2 things related?

Fixed.

I was barely able to sit all the way through this.

such bullshit this movie.

i can't believe hurting started this thread. for shame.

This movie is a horrendous bag of shit.

I can believe that Hurting started this thread.

It was cute. But maybe I think that coz I watched with gf..

great movie

i can't believe hurting started this thread. for shame.

I don't think he did. Check the date under his post. There seem to be shenanigans afoot.

oh stop conspiracy theory jaymc

it was def the hurting

ya, and i'm still fucking shocked by it.

This movie sucked. After reading this thread, which made me remember the movie, I find myself in the mood to watch something by Gaspar Noé.

i finally saw this a little while ago and i can't decide if i'm more confused by the love for it or the hate.

WTF AT FIRST POST!!!

I'm sure at least a couple of actor/supporting noms, maybe script.

A-ron Hubbard (Hurting) on Sunday, 27 February 2000 02:34 (7 years ago)

Let the record show that I did not travel back in time after seeing this film, nor did I start this thread.

-- Hurting 2, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 02:15 (5 months ago) Link

^ that is all a quote, not me

the thread was not started by hurting

the family dinner with the bucket of fried chicken or whatever was brilliant, i could have watched a whole movie of that type of thing. i think it's too bad that every movie has to trundle its characters through some big plot engine rather than letting the issues just seep up through normal conversation

-- Tracer Hand, Monday, March 19, 2007 7:22 AM (5 months ago) Bookmark Link

otm. though it would've needed a better writer or whatever the hell went wrong with the script fixed
this movie, ugh

As much as I loathed LMS, I have to agree that it wasn't doing too badly until the roadtrip began. I still remember thinking the mismatching plastic cups on the dinner table was a great, unforced detail.

the thread was not started by hurting

-- gabbneb, Thursday, August 30, 2007 4:18 AM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

http://www.troutinhand.com/public_art/revisionist/revisionist_r1_c1.gif

I did not like this film.

I did.

it was just so happy! don't ya ever just wanna feel really happy like that?

This film is probably on a level with Norbit in terms of its artistic worth.

Lol at rockist hataz. The ILM spirit lives!

I'm sure at least a couple of actor/supporting noms, maybe script.

-- A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Sunday, 27 February 2000 02:34 (7 years ago) Link

i can't believe hurting started this thread. for shame.

-- s1ocki, Thursday, 30 August 2007 00:51 (11 hours ago) Link

That's because it was before Sept. 11 changed everything.

Oh was it that time when the date went bad?

I think that might be the case - I also think that I might have actually posted that statement but in context and then the thread got truncated. I DEFINITELY did not start the thread.

i liked this film more after the road trip started. it made me uncomfortable before because it reminded me too much of my family (hassled mom, angry brother, dinner scene 100% OTM in every way), then it got silly and unrealistic. i think this probably says something bad about me.

however i feel about the rest of this film - and i remember enjoying it in the cinema - the last nine minutes of it are nine of the most tears-rolling-down-my-face pulling-muscles-due-to-laughing-so-hard JOYOUS minutes of celluloid i've ever put my eyes in front of.

put them back in their sockets

Why did Hurting start this thread? WHY?! :(

oh hurting

movie sucks ballzzz

gypsy mothra otm

that's how i felt Charlie!

LINDAAAAAAAAAA!

oh you guys (xxxpost)

one of those films that makes you sick while you're watching it, and afterwards you never want to see it again. i can't deny the little girl's performance was kind of touching though, and you felt that she could be a real person, while everyone else was a scripted and casted figment. and when i say her performance i mean throughout the film not, you know, the end.

you only think she could be a real person cos she's quite ugly.

cruel but otm

don't get me wrong, she's prolly earning big bucks now so i'd hit that, but still.

http://metropolis.co.jp/xmg/498/Thunderpants.jpg

you only think she could be a real person cos she's quite ugly.

-- darraghmac, Thursday, 30 August 2007 21:06 (30 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

cruel but otm

-- Hurting 2, Thursday, 30 August 2007 21:14

not otm at all! her personality felt quite...ordinary, typical of lots of kids like her, not a quirky, unique creation.

and she certainly wasn't ugly for chrissakes, but obv you two have high standards as you appear on the cover of playgirl every other month

your name is frogman.

How many little girls around you right now aren't ugly? Let it be.

xp
http://www.icanread.com/

I'm sorry I think I killed your brother.

i shouldn't do this, but..

How many little girls around you right now aren't ugly?

what the hell are you even talking about

Let it be.

are you upset by two lines on one subject or something? do you have major ADD i haven't read that thread yet.

you're that libertarin dick aren't you. i hope that wasn't too many words for you. bye.

Don't you just think that most people are ugly really? Lot's. But I'm not upset about it at all. Why so serious monsieur le frog?

From whence the libertarian dick comment?

this. movie. sucks.

hey if you weren't being antagonistic i apologise for calling you a dick. the brother comment was funny. but telling someone to "let it be" on a message board when they're discussing the topic is dumb and unnecessary.

one of those films that makes you sick while you're watching it, and afterwards you never want to see it again.

So it does serve a function?

I wasn't saying that to you though bro! I think little children should be allowed to be ugly. I was very, very ugly. But not libertarian :(

Hey it's ok, i'm sure you're hella ugly! I'm down wit dat. But she's not, i'm fairly sure.

That's why i wrote that she wasn't. You see how his works now? *winky*

this works now

You're just going out of your way to be a dick about this?

YOU ARE DEBATING THUNDERPANTS.JPG JUST STOP.

please to explain this JPG thing you always bring up to an ugly person such as myself.

hey john justen

KILLFILE 2.0
KILLFILE 2.0
KILLFILE 2.0
KILLFILE 2.0

you're welcome

The majesty & mystery of Thunderpants

Sweet.

Why does ILE hate nearly 100% of films that aren't Spirited Away or Children Of Men or Pan's Labyrinth? The latter two were so mediocre and this was a great film!

ban grozart

ps u forgot iron giant

pps ban grozart

xp Your taste is too shitty to comprehend.

Would anyone feel less of a person if you found out this was their favorite movie ever?

that question makes no sense.

think less of a person

Not really, it would almost be endearing.

says the guy in the "human suit."

you're not fooling anyone.

I think I'm fooling myself.

I think my taste in movies is as terrible as everyone else's taste, so I wouldn't hold it against anyone for liking this film. But I wouldn't want to talk about it with them and I wouldn't want to hear them defend ugly children.

That is also to say I think everyone ever has terrible taste in films.

um, to elaborate- it's quite clear in the movie that CHARACTER of the little girl is less that aesthetically perfect and entering a beauty pageant. it's the whole premise of the movie.

i'm quite sure that abigail breslin is a perfectly cute little girl.

ok now? and don't be so pissy. there's lots more to be offended at on the internet.

what i really hated about the end is how it set up, yet again, a binary between american idol style heartless virtuosity and dumb yet heartfelt amateurishness, as if actually being good at something were evidence of conformism

uh, but she actually danced well, didn't she?

I thought it was about the oh never mind.

i blame the parents

i hated that the end was about a little girl doing a striptease. it was fuckin gross

right but the striptease was actually innocent and cute unlike the slutty gross cheerleader dances of the other girls... but who cares anyway? this was a nothing movie. i can't see getting worked up about it either way. (and maybe there are people who have done less work for an oscar than alan arkin in this, but there can't be many.)

this movie was so spiteful

Hmm, this thread was starting in 2000 for a movie that came out in 2006.

It would certainly explain the initial lack of replies.

i don't remember a thing about this movie. did it actually win an oscar? wtf?

this movie was spiteful and fun. kinnear's hopeless wreck of a gibberish spouting dad was pretty cruel. enjoyed that.

Hmm, this thread was starting in 2000 for a movie that came out in 2006.

I had no idea Hurting was a time traveler.

This thread is a great example of how as a film goes from unseen to widely seen it attracts haters.

See also: religions, sports figures, and just about everything else ever.

because people see it, and realize that it's awful?

otm

i've been spending some time trying to eliminate all my critical judgement so that i can enjoy as many things as possible

I'm sure at least a couple of actor/supporting noms, maybe script.

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Sunday, 27 February 2000 02:34 (10 years ago) Bookmark

Ok, this is seriously clever. He predicted stuff 3 months before the script was even started. Perhaps more impressively he posted to ILE 18 months before it started,

It's amazing that I was able to predict anything about this movie's oscar prospects as early as February, 2000.
― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Thursday, September 7, 2006 5:05 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark

He impressed himself!

because people see it, and realize that it's awful?

lol YES

I like Kinnear a lot but this movie was basically a waste, very predictable

Have never seen this. I'm fairly good at spotting the ones that won't ever matter.

good eye in this case. it's like a feel-good movie that tries really hard to be edgy. sorta annoying really.

like, could you guess that the motto-spouting motivational speaker character learns an important lesson about what really matters in life blah blah blah

The little girl from this getting an Oscar nomination over Shareeka Epps from Half-Nelson is pretty offensive.

steve carrel was so bad in this. retread of every luke wilson in a wes movie ever.

I have never felt so alone as I did in a roaring, packed house watched this movie. It SUCKED

i thought there were some ok parts & performances (<3 toni collette 4eva) but if there were ever a movie crying out for an ambiguously depressing 70s style ending it's this one, but this being 00s, everything comes out ok.

i mean, it's about a loser-ass family led by a self-deluded guy and his deluded daughter and unhappy wife & son stuck in a van. on the way, the junkie grandpa dies. everybody dance!

one of those movies where i feel like the actors all deserve a better script.

except for the john candy bits, this movie was better than national lampoon's vacation which is basically the same movie.

That's not my recollection of it

also, rachel getting married is better than ferris bueller's day off but not better than sixteen candles, which it weirdly combined.

whoops -- i didn't see this!
IT WAS A GOOD MOVIE BUT IT WAS EXACTLY LIKE FUCKING NATIONAL LAMPOONS VACATION!
― chaki (chaki), Sunday, August 6, 2006 9:16 PM (4 years ago)

independently confirmed!

nobody actually likes this movie

i know ppl who love it :(

I just saw timecop and greenberg so am feeling pretty generous to this movie in hindsight.

Have never seen this. I'm fairly good at spotting the ones that won't ever matter.

― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Monday, August 16, 2010 5:37 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah, you're really good at not seeing movies.

Just saw this. It was ... watchable. Felt like whoever made this movie had five ideas for wacky characters, wasn't sure if they were going to get to make more than one movie so put all five in this one. Gave one not much to think about besides "family drives you crazy but it's all we've got in this crazy world mmmmkay?" There were amusing moments (e.g. malfunctioning horn gag) but it's extremely hard for me to imagine anyone laughing out loud at any point during this movie, let alone loving it. Also kind of hard to imagine really going out of one's way to hate it. But evidently my imagination is not good enough!

Hurting did 9/11

Directors are back with Riggs (Steve Carrell)/King (Emma Stone) film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0FxwbPTjnA&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0FxwbPTjnA&t=1s