Little Miss Sunshine Reviews

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 86/100

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

Full Review | Original Score: 48/100

Sundance-calibrated sitcom

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I loved it, every bit of it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

...mediocre black comedy.

Full Review | Original Score: C+

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

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5

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

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

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

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

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

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5

Accumulates depth and fleshes out its characters.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

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

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10

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

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Ride along to dysfunction in quirky indie comedy.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

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

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

a family road movie brimming with spot-on performances, hilarious situations, and plenty of good feeling - and it treats its comic characters with a rare affection.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

A wonderful message movie, warts-an-all!

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4

The film is part of an emerging trend that taps into the very real and urgent concerns of working people in increasingly pauperized Bush's America.

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It doesn't exploit its characters for comedy or life lessons; it simply embraces the family members and lets them be themselves.

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It works better than most movies with a quirky Sundance pedigree, because the filmmakers aren't quick to paint any of their characters as morally wrong.

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