A laugh-out-loud comedy

Rating: Null/10 (23 October 2006)

One of the unique things about independent cinema is, if you live outside the City of Angels, the Windy City or the Big Apple, you need to wait weeks before an "indie" film comes to your area. These cities have the audience and are proved testing grounds for this type of cinema. Indie films thrive in disassociation with the large film studios because it would limit their ability to be unique and produce cinema that some might call controversial. Few copies are made until the film proves it can stand on its own. Once that happens we all get to see them. With the use of satellites the emerging digital film distribution systems should assist in making these films available faster in the coming years.
Little Miss Sunshine has been playing to rave reviews in those cities for weeks but that doesn't necessarily make it a great film. You might remember the screenplay "Brokeback Mountain" an indie film with a huge advertising budget yet the movie stunk up the place.
"Little Miss" stands taller than the hype. It's a story about a father/grandfather thrown out of a nursing home; a dad who bets everything on his 8-step to success theory; a teenage son who decides not to speak; an uncle recently released from a psyche ward for trying to commit suicide over a gay lover; mom, the only sane one in the bunch; and little Olive wonderfully played by Abigail Breslin. The family decides to take a road trip in a VW bus from New Mexico to California to enter Olive in a JonBenet Ramsey type beauty pageant named, Little Miss Sunshine.
It's a laugh-out-loud comedy which avoids every predictable humorous scene shown in so many comedy films. Instead of the predictable the film provides you with so many hilarious and unexpected surprises. Because you never know where it's going your enjoyment is greater. Near the end of the film you find yourself laughing so hard you can't hear the soundtrack but who cares the images are so funny that it's not needed.
If you consider yourself straight-laced or think you have it all together chances are you won't enjoy this film. But if you're are like me - slightly twisted, partly dysfunctional, and can enjoy 101-minutes of steady laughter, you can't afford to wait to see this on DVD.