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Little Miss Sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

tomatometer

91

Average Rating: 7.7/10
Reviews Counted: 205
Fresh: 186 | Rotten: 19

What happens when you stuff a failed motivation speaker, his wife, the nation's number one Proust scholar, an elderly potty-mouthed heroin addict, a teen who's mute by choice, and a bespectacled little pageant hopeful into a mini VW bus for a three day road trip? You get this hilarious but moving satire about a dysfunctional family obsessed with winning. Credit must go to the ensemble cast that includes Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Alan Arkin, and Abigail Breslin and the delightfully funny script by Michael Arndt, which first-time directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris handled perfectly.

89

Average Rating: 7.4/10
Critic Reviews: 45
Fresh: 40 | Rotten: 5

What happens when you stuff a failed motivation speaker, his wife, the nation's number one Proust scholar, an elderly potty-mouthed heroin addict, a teen who's mute by choice, and a bespectacled little pageant hopeful into a mini VW bus for a three day road trip? You get this hilarious but moving satire about a dysfunctional family obsessed with winning. Credit must go to the ensemble cast that includes Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Alan Arkin, and Abigail Breslin and the delightfully funny script by Michael Arndt, which first-time directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris handled perfectly.

audience

90

liked it
Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 379,546

My Rating

Movie Info

When a pudgy, bespectacled seven-year-old, Olive (Abigail Breslin), voices her desire to take home the coveted Little Miss Sunshine crown at an upcoming beauty pageant, her wildly dysfunctional family sets out on an interstate road trip to ensure her a clear shot at realizing her dreams in former music video directorial team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' quirky feature debut, starring Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, and Toni Collette. Despite early career success as an outspoken motivational

R, 1 hr. 39 min.

Comedy

,

Michael Arndt

Dec 19, 2006

$59.8M

Fox Searchlight

Cast

All Critics (206) | Top Critics (45) | Fresh (191) | Rotten (22) | DVD (34)

Sunny or dark, comedy should never be as predictable as Little Miss Sunshine.

November 10, 2006 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | Comment
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

... a scrappy human comedy that takes an honest path to laughs and is twice as funny and touching for it.

November 10, 2006 Comment (1)
Rolling Stone
Top Critic IconTop Critic

... this isn't much more than a glorified sitcom, but it deftly dramatizes our conflicting desires for individuality and an audience to applaud it.

November 10, 2006 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment (1)
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The funniest and most gracefully written, acted and directed dysfunctional-American-family farce comedy of the year thus far.

August 16, 2006 Full Review Source: New York Observer | Comment
New York Observer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Dayton and Faris satirize our win-win culture, but they don't miss a trick promoting Little Miss Sunshine for the winner's circle.

August 14, 2006 Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | Comment
Christian Science Monitor
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Little Miss Sunshine makes you want to gather all the kooks in your life and take a road trip.

August 13, 2006 Full Review Source: Detroit News | Comment
Detroit News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Fox Searchlight loads the standard DVD with impressive features, including audio commentary tracks that are fun and entertaining, alternate endings and a music video.

October 1, 2009 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | Comment
Apollo Guide

While the screenplay is impressive and deserving of its recognition, it is Alan Arkin's performance-of-a-lifetime that separates this from other well-written small movies.

October 1, 2009 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | Comment
Apollo Guide

Harmless enough as passable road movies go, but I can't help but wish directors of films like these would grow some damn balls.

September 19, 2009 Full Review Source: Film and Felt | Comments (6)
Film and Felt

Sundance-calibrated sitcom

August 30, 2009 Full Review Source: CinePassion | Comment
CinePassion

I loved it, every bit of it.

April 29, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed | Comment
Cinema Crazed

Like little kids spouting dirty words in certain comedies, this film from first-time directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris undermines the subversive with the self-conscious. But it's still funny.

April 23, 2009 Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | Comment
Boston Phoenix

...mediocre black comedy.

April 21, 2009 Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | Comments (3)
ColeSmithey.com

This inspirational, hilariously sad dysfunctional-family-road-trip dramedy offers absolutely everything -- except pretension.

November 20, 2008 Full Review Source: Hollywood.com | Comment
Hollywood.com

In a word: amazing.

August 25, 2008 Full Review Source: ReelzChannel.com | Comments (2)

A few touching and surprising moments aside, it all feels a little prefab, with family dysfunction as the indie version of a high concept.

August 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | Comment
Sacramento News & Review

Writer Michael Arndt has cleverly captured the bribery and corruption which lie at the heart of most families.

June 13, 2008 Full Review Source: Eye for Film | Comment
Eye for Film

The chaotic dinner scene pops like syncopated jazz, setting the tone for a warm, funny film that has more smiles than belly laughs.

June 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Paste Magazine | Comment
Paste Magazine

Accumulates depth and fleshes out its characters.

March 11, 2008 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment
eFilmCritic.com

Charming, moving, warm and brilliantly hysterical, Little Miss Sunshine is easily the funniest thing I have seen in a theater in years.

February 28, 2008 Full Review Source: BrandonFibbs.com | Comment
BrandonFibbs.com

A cheap Sisyphean metaphor literally drives the thing: at first played for laughs, it's recycled to the point of nausea.

February 1, 2008 Full Review Source: Cinematical | Comments (8)
Cinematical

Ride along to dysfunction in quirky indie comedy.

October 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

A hilariously caustic package that makes its ultimate uplift genuinely feel-good instead of insufferably saccharine.

August 26, 2007 Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | Comment
TheMovieReport.com
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Little Miss Sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine is the movie that's redefined the dysfunctonal family. Although marketed as a comedy it's more of a moving, inspiring and emotional drama than the next comedy flick. The directorial duo made this ensemble of messed up characters charming and lovable flawlessly and with the laughs, the character

January 22, 2012
Directors Cat
Directors Cat

Super Reviewer

'Little Miss Sunshine' is a tender but fierce film that never sputters as it reveals its intentions and brilliance. This is clearly the world we live in, yet its clearly the one we don't want. Filled with awesome performances from every character within the pointed script, 'Little Miss Sunshine' delivers on all

April 20, 2011
Kase Vollebregt

Super Reviewer

    1. Dwayne: FUCK!
    – Submitted by Sean W (6 months ago)
    1. Olive: Grampa won't wake up.
    – Submitted by Sean W (6 months ago)
    1. Grandpa: Losers are people who are so afraid of not winning, they don't even try.
    – Submitted by Lavinia H (9 months ago)
    1. Dwayne: You know what? Fuck beauty contests. Life is one fucking beauty contest after another. School, then college, then work... Fuck that. And fuck the Air Force Academy. If I want to fly, I'll find a way to fly. You do what you love, and fuck the rest.
    – Submitted by Chris P (13 months ago)
    1. Richard: There's two kinds of people in this world, there's winners and there's losers. Okay, you know what the difference is? Winners don't give up.
    – Submitted by Chris P (13 months ago)

Latest News for Little Miss Sunshine

February 1, 2012:
Five Favorite Films with Daniel Radcliffe
"It's actually a thrill to be talking about something else," Daniel Radcliffe chuckles, pausing to...

October 28, 2011:
Five Favorite Films with Abigail Breslin
Since her acting debut in Signs (at age six) and Oscar nomination for Little Miss Sunshine (at age...

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Foreign Titles

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