Hands Down, Best Movie of 2006

Rating: 10/10 (5 November 2006)

It's hard to find a really good road movie. Most tend to have really great moments but are followed by long, drawn out sections that are kinda boring and making us as the viewer wish they'd go to funnier things. 'Transamerica' is a great movie, but it did drag on the road at times. Same with 'Vacation' and boatloads of other movies in that vein. Of course, then there are the absolutely down-right horrible road movies, like oh, I don't know..."Road Trip" and pretty much all the Vacations that followed the original.
So we come to 'Little Miss Sunshine'. The film opens with a young girl (Abagail Breslin of 'Signs' fame--she's way better in this), who is about 7 or 8, staring directly at us. We know she's watching TV because a beauty pageant is reflected in her glasses that are about twice the size of John Lennon's.
What follows is a brief introduction of all the characters of the Hoover family. There's the son, Dwyane (Paul Dano from L. I. E.), who has been reading Nietchze and has decided that the only thing for him to do is to take a vow of silence until he can get into the Air Force Academy; he spends most of his time working out and reading 'Thus Spake Zarathustra.' Next comes the Grandpa (Alan Arkin) who just got kicked out of his retirement home for chasing the women and snorting heroin. The dad (Greg Kinnear) is attempting to become a self-help guru; he's bent on winning and sees losers as seem to be dragged along the sidewalk, yet his 9-step program isn't doing that fabulously. The Mom (Toni Collete, always great) really wants the family to stay together but there's just not enough time for everything. And then there's her brother, Frank (Steve Carell), who has just tried to commit suicide because his boyfriend left him for the world's second-most Proust scholar who is climbing up the ranks.
That's the family. Like The Simpsons, there's a little bit of everyone you can see in The Hoovers.
Everyone is cast so perfectly. It's one of those instances where you forget all these big names and refer to them as Olive, Frank, Dwayne, Grandpa, Sheryl, and Richard. When a cast can do that you know they're doing a great job.
The movie's trailers may make it seem more like a comedy-drama but the drama angle is actually downplayed. 'LIttle Miss Sunshine' is a genuinely hilarious film. That's all I can say because the road is paved with comedy that's even the more hilarious as you come upon it.
Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Ferris take the Spike Jonze route in their transition to the big screen rather than the, say, McG approach. This directing couple are visionaries, that's for sure. One doesn't need to look further than the two best Chili Peppers videos, 'Otherside' and 'Californication', to see that. They keep the weird visions subdued for the most part, but they are able to keep the incredibly boring road from Albequerque to Los Angelos interesting. That's quite a feat, I have to say, because New Mexico is really boring.
The music also stands out, especially since the songs are performed by DeVotchKa, probably the most original band out there that I've heard of (and they're from Colorado, take that The Fray!). They have this beautiful and strange sound that matches the entire film. Also contributing to the soundtrack are some great cuts by Sufjan Stevens, one of those big indie guys. DeVotchKa's better but still.
Really, this is a farce movie. There are loads of hysterical events that had my entire theater bursting guts. I don't envy the cleaning people after this showing. The Volkswagon Bus, being held together by it's last remaining nerves and muscles makes a great metaphor for the entire family but at the same time is a great gag throughout that never grows thin through all its foibles (though of course, if I were driving that thing I'd get pretty annoyed with it pretty quickly).
'Little Miss Sunshine' was picked up at Sundance for nearly 10 million dollars, the biggest in Sundance history. It was well worth it. It's an audience-pleaser and a great piece of art. There's a great satire underneath the entire thing too. It's most visible towards the end of the film during the beauty pageant, which is both uncomfortable and, how many times have I said funny? Can't really deny the truth. This should be the 'Brokeback' of 2006 mainly because it's about four times better than that. It's 'Vacation' with a heart.
The audience I saw it with when I sojourned to Denver applauded at the end. Everyone just seemed so happy while walking out the theater.
A+.