Little Miss Sunshine
By Larry Anklewicz
Wednesday, August 9, 2006
If you saw the trailers for Little Miss Sunshine, you would presume that this was a silly comedy that you wouldnt be interested in seeing. You would have been Wrong! The trailers give a completely distorted impression of this film.
Little Miss Sunshine is a funny film. It is entertaining and heart warming and contains lots of little truisms.
There are parts of the film that are silly and even somewhat ridiculous. But overall, it is a little gem that should be watched and enjoyed.
Little Miss Sunshine tells the story of a dysfunctional family. But then, arent all families in movies a bit strange? In this case, their problems are actually funny and the cast is terrific in finding the humorous elements of these problems.
The film deals with the unusual American phenomenon of child beauty pageants, where little girls dress up, put on make up and pretend to be grown up and sexy. Many people spend their entire lives carting their daughters from one of these competitions to another.
In Little Miss Sunshine, we look at seven-year-old Olives attempts to win a beauty contest--notwithstanding the fact that she is overweight, wears glasses and has non of the attributes one would associate with a beauty queen.
The eccentricities dont end there with this family. The father, Richard Hoover, is a failed motivational speaker who is betting his whole career on publishing a book that will lay out his 9-step program for success with a wider audience--except that the publisher hasnt given the final green light to the project.
The mothers brother is a Proust scholar who attempted to commit suicide after being jilted by his gay lover and has been released from hospital into the care of his sister. Olives teenage brother reads Nietzsche and has taken a vow of silence until he gets accepted into the Air Force Academy. And finally we have the grandfather, who has been kicked out of a retirement home and whose only interests are sex and illegal drugs.
When Olive is informed that she can enter the Little Miss Sunshine contest in California, the whole family comes together to support her and accompany her on a road trip from Hell, in order to get to the competition in time.
I cant tell you about the adventures and misadventures the family must endure, but these include some of the funniest scenes I have seen on the big screen in a long time.
The film may start slowly, but it sure makes up for it very quickly. Its a film definitely worth seeing.
Starring: Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Abigail Breslin, Paul Dano, Alan Arkin.
Shooting Dogs
Small but interesting film about the genocide in Rwanda.
Joe Connor has come to teach in a church run school in the heart of Africa. When the killings begin, some 1,500 Rwandans come onto the school grounds in an attempt to seek protection from church officials and from a small unit of United Nations troops stationed on the school property.
Joe promised one of his brightest students that she will be safe here, but eventually the UN troops are ordered out and the refugees huddled on the school grounds are left to a grim fate.
Joe is offered the opportunity to leave with the evacuating troops and is not allowed to take his student with him. Should he stay to try to protect her? Or should he get out while he can?
That is the dilemma Joe faces and the decision he must make.
The film is based on real events and was shot at the actual location where the story took place.
Starring: John Hurt, Hugh Dancy.
Recent DVDs
Awesome; I F------ Shot That
First ever Beastie Boys concert DVD is awesome and one of the most innovative concert film ever released to the public.
On October 9, 2004, at Madison Square Gardens in New York, the Beastie Boys handed out fifty cameras to members of the audience. Each of these fans shot the concert from his own perspective and all of these were edited down into this concert film.
The film was shown briefly in theatres and then released on DVD with over 2 1/2 hours of special features, including alternate angles and multi-camera grids. The DVD contains A Cappella vocal tracks and a special Hidden Detours feature. There's band commentaries, a short film A Day In The Life Of Nathaniel Hornblower, plus many surprises.
Whether youre a Beastie Boys fan or not, this DVD will blow you away.
Jayne Mansfield Collection
On the fiftieth anniversary of The Girl Cant Help It, Jayne Mansfield, the blonde bombshell of the 1950s is back with three of her most interesting films.
This DVD collection includes Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw and The Girl Cant Help It. That last title is one of the most invaluable records of rock and roll history put on film and includes music by Fats Domino, Little Richard and The Platters.
Revisit a star who flashed across the Hollywood skies briefly but set a lot of mens hearts on fire.
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