Little Miss Sunshine
Not being a movie review site, this is a little unorthodox, but I just wanted to talk to you guys about Little Miss Sunshine. Probably one of the best movies I have seen in a while, it successfully takes the completely overdone cliche` movie device of the family road trip and turns it into something unique, original and hilarious. Steve Carell is in his element as a morose, depressed Proust scholar and pulls off his lines with excellent delivery. Who really steals the show, however, is the little girl who plays Olive, Abigail Breslin. She is an incredible actress, never once do you get that creepy little-kid-being-trained-by-their-parents-to-act vibe. She is really Olive, the little intelligent optimistic girl who wants nothing more than to be in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant.
That's what is so great about this movie, is that no one is fake. You have the stale archetypes, the overbearing dad, the hippy mom, the crude grandpa and the bored teenage brother. But everyone in this movie takes their role and makes it interesting to watch. They mix tragedy and comedy in a way that is so incredibly refreshing to someone like me who absolutely loathes going to movies these days. It's not the generic man-gets-hit-in-balls laughs, and it is never predictable. You see these very real people in very real comic situations and that makes them very relateable. This is everyone's crazy family.
A movie that makes you think is one thing, a movie that makes you cry is another. A movie that is genuinely funny and makes you do both of those things and still delivers the usually cheesy message that being yourself is the best way to go about life is a movie worth watching. Go see it! It's depressing! It's hilarious! It has Steve Carell as a gay man! DO IT.
