2008 Woodie Awards
Round of Applause for Little Miss Sunshine
Film provides ensemble of chacters everyone can love
Jen Elliott
Issue date: 9/14/06 Section: Entertainment
Olive Hoover dares to dream the impossible dream; like many 7-year-old girls she wants to be a beauty queen.
Little Miss Sunshine is the story of a family trying to make Olive's dream come true. The family agrees to trek across country for the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in Redondo Beach California, so that little Olive can show off the dance moves her Grandpa taught her and she can steal the show.
The Hoover family defines dysfunction with a working mother Sheryl (Toni Collette), her husband Richard, a failure of a motivational speaker (Greg Kinnear), a drug addicted grandfather (Alan Arkin), a teenage son' Dwayne (Paul Dano), who has taken a vow of silence; and a Proust scholar brother-in-law (Steve Carell of The 40-year-old Virgin) who was just released from the hospital for attempting suicide after a brutal breakup with one of his male grad students, and a bright eyed daughter, 7-year-old Olive (Abigail Breslin of Signs and Raising Helen), who practices everyday to become Little Miss Sunshine.
This journey takes them on a hilarious, uplifting, emotional ride in their rickety yellow Volkswagen bus; they experience highs and lows from a broken down vehicle, crushed dreams, heartbreak, death, financial woes and divorce. But, what brings them all together is their need to be a unit and makes one another stronger.
After seeing the film it's hard to see anyone else playing these roles. Carell's performance is far from light-hearted as he is dragged along this road trip depressed from his recent breakup. Despite his neuroses however, he works with the family to make Olive's dream come true. Kinnear's character is someone you love to hate; his obsession with separating people into winners and losers and even his way of "motivating" his daughter by telling her that she shouldn't eat ice cream because that isn't what beauty queens put in their bodies is because he wants his little girl to win. The chemistry between Kinnear and Carrell is wonderful their witty banter makes for a great film. Arkins' skill as an actor allows him to portray his character as the ne'er do well grandfather with an affection for heroin and porn; as though her were improvising. Breslin brings Olive Hoover to life as a fun-loving little girl who is the bridge between her families' problems. Breslins' character is a small town girl, who is introduced to airbrushed tans, big hair, and too much makeup which comprises the world of child beauty queens; her performance exudes maturity and a fantastic ability to understand her character.
Husband and Wife directing team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris began their directing career with music videos. The1995 Smashing Pumpkins video Tonight, Tonight won Dayton and Faris a MTV Award for best video. In Little Miss Sunshine the dynamic duo bring their feature film debut to life with a great film that makes us all believe that family is really what counts.
Little Miss Sunshine is the story of a family trying to make Olive's dream come true. The family agrees to trek across country for the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in Redondo Beach California, so that little Olive can show off the dance moves her Grandpa taught her and she can steal the show.
The Hoover family defines dysfunction with a working mother Sheryl (Toni Collette), her husband Richard, a failure of a motivational speaker (Greg Kinnear), a drug addicted grandfather (Alan Arkin), a teenage son' Dwayne (Paul Dano), who has taken a vow of silence; and a Proust scholar brother-in-law (Steve Carell of The 40-year-old Virgin) who was just released from the hospital for attempting suicide after a brutal breakup with one of his male grad students, and a bright eyed daughter, 7-year-old Olive (Abigail Breslin of Signs and Raising Helen), who practices everyday to become Little Miss Sunshine.
This journey takes them on a hilarious, uplifting, emotional ride in their rickety yellow Volkswagen bus; they experience highs and lows from a broken down vehicle, crushed dreams, heartbreak, death, financial woes and divorce. But, what brings them all together is their need to be a unit and makes one another stronger.
After seeing the film it's hard to see anyone else playing these roles. Carell's performance is far from light-hearted as he is dragged along this road trip depressed from his recent breakup. Despite his neuroses however, he works with the family to make Olive's dream come true. Kinnear's character is someone you love to hate; his obsession with separating people into winners and losers and even his way of "motivating" his daughter by telling her that she shouldn't eat ice cream because that isn't what beauty queens put in their bodies is because he wants his little girl to win. The chemistry between Kinnear and Carrell is wonderful their witty banter makes for a great film. Arkins' skill as an actor allows him to portray his character as the ne'er do well grandfather with an affection for heroin and porn; as though her were improvising. Breslin brings Olive Hoover to life as a fun-loving little girl who is the bridge between her families' problems. Breslins' character is a small town girl, who is introduced to airbrushed tans, big hair, and too much makeup which comprises the world of child beauty queens; her performance exudes maturity and a fantastic ability to understand her character.
Husband and Wife directing team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris began their directing career with music videos. The1995 Smashing Pumpkins video Tonight, Tonight won Dayton and Faris a MTV Award for best video. In Little Miss Sunshine the dynamic duo bring their feature film debut to life with a great film that makes us all believe that family is really what counts.