Little Miss Sunshine
Overview
Little Miss Sunshine is a 2006 comedy-drama film directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, written by Michael Arndt. The film follows the Hoover family, a dysfunctional family who travel from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Redondo Beach, California, so that their 7-year-old daughter Olive (Abigail Breslin) can compete in the "Little Miss Sunshine" beauty pageant. The family members are: Richard (Greg Kinnear), Olive's father, a motivational speaker who is obsessed with winning and who has not yet had a success; Sheryl (Toni Collette), Olive's mother, a stressed, exhausted woman who holds the family together; Dwayne (Paul Dano), Olive's teenage brother, a Nietzsche-reading nihilist who has taken a vow of silence; Grandpa Edwin (Alan Arkin), Olive's grandfather, a foul-mouthed, heroin-addicted former World War II veteran; and Frank (Steve Carell), Sheryl's brother, a Proust scholar who has just attempted suicide after being rejected by his male lover. The family packs into a dilapidated yellow Volkswagen bus and drives across the American Southwest. The bus is a character in itself: the horn is broken, the doors stick, the engine occasionally fails. The family faces a series of disasters: the bus breaks down, Grandpa dies of a heroin overdose, and the family is forced to steal his body from the hospital. They arrive at the pageant, only to find that it is a grotesque, hyper-commercialized spectacle of precocious, overly sexualized young girls. Olive performs a dance that Grandpa taught her, to the song "Super Freak" by Rick James. The pageant officials are horrified, and the family is banned from ever competing again. The film ends with the family dancing on stage together, and then getting back in the bus and driving home. Little Miss Sunshine was a critical and commercial success, earning over $100 million on an $8 million budget. It won two Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor for Alan Arkin and Best Original Screenplay. The film is a hilarious, heartwarming, and deeply affecting portrait of a family that learns to love each other despite their flaws.
