Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

20100406:
I love this movie! One major aspect is the music. Absolutely great music. Then Abigail Breslin as Olive Hoover. There are at least three memorable scenes in the movie. There's the one with Dwayne, Olive's older brother; scenes involving the van; and Olive's dance. Of course with the first and the third there is a stronger sense of emotion. There are some other emotional scenes, but I don't think I can refer to them without giving away too much. Steve Carell was a blast. Carell has made so many good movies its hard to remember his first big break. His biography on imdb.com suggests that it started with his role as Evan Baxter in Bruce Almighty (starring Jim Carrey, Morgan Freeman, and Jennifer Aniston).

[20100408]

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20101010:
This movie was in the background while I was studying. I love this music! (Haha, which I said in the last paragraph...) Again there's the music. This movie has a good balance of strong, serious, intense scenes and humorous, light-hearted, warm-felt scenes. I think my favorite scene is the one with Dwayne. I'd add to the list of memorable scenes: the magazines; more emphasis on scenes involving the van. I'm a little confused at the direction of the scene between Dwayne and Frank during the Little Miss Sunshine contest. Frank basically says the best parts of life are the hardships. And then Dwayne says life is competition after competition, it shouldn't be that way. I felt Dwayne's personal realization conflicted with Frank's meaningful statement. I'm not saying Dwayne was wrong, it's just that juxtaposing the two statements really made the scene awkward for me. Watched the alternate endings again, without commentary (the first time was "once before on dvd").

[20101012]

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Watched once before on dvd
Watched 20100406
Watched 20101010 Widescreen
Little Miss Sunshine (2006) Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris. 101 min.

Relevant Links:
Little Miss Sunshine (IMDb.com)
Little Miss Sunshine (RottenTomatoes.com)