I saw Little Miss Sunshine tonight. I liked it, quite muchly. It stars Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette and Alan Arkin. It's a very funny mix of two genres of movies the dysfunctional family comedy and the road movie. There are dozens of movies just like this one (Transamerica is the most recent that I can think) yet when they work -- like this one does -- they work quite well.
The acting is very strong, the writing is great and the funny parts are very very funny. They do a great job of balancing humorous dialogue/characterizations and pure slapstick (the defective car horn had the entire audience I saw it with in stitches.) Steve Carell isn't really the star of this movie and he does well with his supporting role. If it wasn't for the solid performances from the entire cast, Alan Arkin would have stolen the whole movie.
The little girl who plays the daughter, Olive has a very odd cuteness about her. Like if Napoleon Dynamite had a little sister. She's really good in this, she embodies her character and doesn't just recite her lines like some child actors do.
Anyway, this is a fantastic little movie and I highly recommend it. It actually got a nice round of applause from the Georgetown crowd I saw it with. And honestly, I don't think I've laughed this hard at the movies since perhaps Wedding Crashers. (Okay that's not entirely true but X3 wasn't supposed funny.)
reggie [email] said at 2:03 AM 08-09-2006: Also: before the movie I was walking up Wisconsin Ave. and this lady approaches me and asks me to help load a bunch of boxes of soda into a cab. I did it and made 5 bucks off of it. I know you're probably supposed to turn to down money in these situations but I'll take what I can get these days.
julie [email] said at 1:39 AM 08-12-2006: I second that emotion. Best long-awaited mind-blowing dance scene since Nap-Dyn. Oops, spoiler alert. This movie is excellent, I will see it again.
myriam [email] said at 7:50 PM 08-23-2006: I just saw this and thought that it was the first ensemble movie I'd seen in a long time (...ever?) in which you actually get a sense of every single character and no one character overshadows the others. Very well done. Well-directed, well-written, well-acted. The little girl seemed so natural, like none of it was an act!
