With Oscars season rapidly approaching, I can’t help but feel like something’s missing among this year’s Best Picture nominees. While I’ve yet to see any of them apart from Wicked (2024), I find that the content and genres of these films divide audiences. They’re either too dark, too nerdy, too serious, or too long (props to the committed folks who sat for three and a half hours and an intermission to watch The Brutalist).
It makes me yearn for a movie with broad appeal that, without getting too dark, covers a wide variety of topics. Basically, I wish this year had a Little Miss Sunshine.
Little Miss Sunshine tells the story of the wild and dysfunctional Hoover family and their road trip from New Mexico to California to get to the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant.
Among the family members is Olive, the pageant contestant in question; her Nietzche-reading brother Dwayne, who has taken a vow of silence; her mom Sheryl, who’s trying to hold down the fort; her father Richard, an aspiring motivational speaker; Uncle Frank, a Proust scholar and recently released from the hospital post-suicide attempt; and of course, Grandpa, who taught Olive all the right moves.
Little Miss Sunshine is about as perfect as a movie can be. It masterfully combines elements of comedy and drama, while adding well-developed characters, fantastic performances, and a lovely soundtrack to round it out.
It’s one of those movies that once you see it, you’ll always remember it. Leading up to my first watch, my mom would proudly label it as her favorite every time it was mentioned.
The film is also an impressive feat, having operated on a fairly small budget with a mix of seasoned and little-known actors. It was nominated for four Oscar awards: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Original Screenplay, with wins in the latter two categories.
On the topic of performances, it’s important to note that every single actor in this movie is perfectly cast. This includes the minor characters, from Dean Norris as the cop who pulls the family over to Matt Winston, the overly cheery pageant host.
The Oscar nominees, Abigail Breslin as Olive and the late, great Alan Arkin as Grandpa, are both fantastic and hilarious; Breslin may be the cutest child, and Arkin may be the most foul-mouthed grandpa ever portrayed in film.
Greg Kinnear’s Richard is so aggressive in his mentality of “winners vs. losers” that you can’t help but love him and hate him. I’m also convinced that Toni Collette, who plays Sheryl, can do no wrong, and Paul Dano’s Dwayne works wonders with his minimal dialogue and facial expressions.
Lastly, I think Steve Carrell gives my favorite performance of his as Frank. For such a funny movie, he handles the material appropriately. It encourages me to check out some of his other serious work.
Usually with these reviews, I always have a paragraph dedicated to the problems that I have with the films. However, I struggle to find any with Little Miss Sunshine. It’s silly, it’s sweet, it’s sad, it’s simple, it’s everything a movie should be. I wish that more movies like this would be made and nominated for Best Picture.
I highly encourage everyone to check this movie out!
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