Best comedy of 2006

Rating: 10/10 (7 August 2006)

The theater I went to in Pasadena, CA tonight was laughing uncontrollably. I have very few criticism's of this movie and the cast is overall sensational. It's hard to find one weak character. Possibly the grandfather was the most one dimensional, but this was a very intelligent script, well directed, well paced, and very well acted.
From the beginning of this piece the characters all have there own issues. We are introduced to one after another, each with their own problems or dilemmas. As the film progresses, the filmmakers have done a very good job expanding on each individual, without any one character taking over the movie, nor any one character being left out. The dialog, for the most part is very real, and you can see this family actually functioning this way. While this movie can easily be described as quirky, hopefully it finds a larger audience with a wider release. This is when independents (fox searchlight) really show they're worth doing. Enough summer blockbusters already, time for some fun, exploratory film-making.
This is by far the best comedy (dark or otherwise) that I've seen in a while, and easily the best one of 2006.