Little Miss Sunshine

Steve Carell and Toni Collette star in this charming coming of age dark comedy, also featuring a young Paul Dano and great performance from young Abigail Breslin as Olive, the girl whose dream of being a child beauty pageant queen sets the family on a cross-country trip in their campervan to make the dream a reality. The film deals with themes of depression, self-acceptance and finding meaning in chaos and is full of emotional scenes that will no doubt trigger a few tears in the audience. The film has become a cult classic, being widely critically acclaimed, with the performances of Alan Arkin and Abigail Breslin receiving academy award nominations for best supporting actor and best supporting actress, with Alan Arkin taking the award home for his performance as the slightly unhinged Edwin, Olive’s grandpa and beauty queen coach. The film was also a big commercial success on its release, garnering over $101.1 million on a budget of just $8 million. This film has a whole lot of heart, and it is definitely one to see if you haven’t already. All the performances are fantastic, and the writing and directing reflect the care and attention the whole crew put into this little film. The perfect way to spend a spring evening this term, and on 35mm none the less, I know I for one am excited to see this great film again on the big screen.

Marnie McCrudden

After five years in the making due to financial difficulties, Little Miss Sunshine was finally released at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival where Fox Searchlight purchased its distribution rights. The film focuses on the Hoover family who embark on a road trip to California where daughter Olive (Breslin) wants to enter the Little Miss Sunshine annual beauty pageant. This, however, is no normal family. Olive’s father (Kinnear) is a struggling motivational speaker, her mother (Collette) is a chain smoker who feeds her family fried chicken, her uncle (Carell) is a suicidal scholar and her brother (Dano) is a Nietzsche-loving, self-imposed mute. The challenge is, therefore, not only to get to California, but also to get there without the family having ripped each other to shreds – something that is not necessarily certain in a cramped Volkswagen camper van.

Little Miss Sunshine is undoubtedly one of the funniest films I have ever seen, and was truly the jewel in the crown of the Sundance Film Festival in 2006. Because of the way that it is filmed, the audience is transported with the Hoovers on their trip and you’ll miss them when the film ends. Although it has a superb cast comprising Academy Award nominees Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette, and Golden Globe-winning The Office (USA) star Steve Carell, they do not overshadow what is, in effect, an indie comedy. There is a superb chemistry between the actors and it would be unfair to call the Hoovers a dysfunctional family. The fact that they make it to California (admittedly, not all of them!) proves that they can overcome any obstacles they are faced with.

Ricky Wyatt