Little Miss Sunshine Reviews

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

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Sundance-calibrated sitcom

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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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...mediocre black comedy.

Full Review | Original Score: C+

The destination is a pageant that will demonstrate, in grotesque, stomach-churning detail, that beauty is skin-deep and that you don't have to win to be a winner.

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The 25-minute setup is truly excruciating. However, once you make it through the first half hour the film is relatively entertaining.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10

Maybe all you need to know about Little Miss Sunshine is that it was a big Sundance hit ... At Sundance, any movie that even hints of American dysfunctionalism usually works like a charm.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

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

It remains stuck in a limbo state that more and more indie films find themselves these days, because of its non-committal attitude.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4

All indie-movie families may start out unhappy in their own way, but by the time the final credits roll, everyone remains complacent, confident of their brood's superiority.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/6

A Sundance-tested slice of American Domestic Dysfunction proving, once again, that no matter what Tolstoy said, sometimes unhappy families are unhappy in very familiar ways.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

Like the shambling VW van its hapless characters steer from Albuquerque to Redondo Beach, Little Miss Sunshine is a rickety vehicle that travels mostly downhill.

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For every good moment in Little Miss Sunshine, which is shaping up to be this summer's breakout indie hit, there are two that are forced, contrived, or overly cute.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

Sorry, folks, but these are not organic characters; they're walking, talking catalogs of screenwriter index-card data.

Full Review | Original Score: C

The kiddie beauty pageant replays all the lessons that have come before: Such competitions are superficial, and displays of love come in all shapes.

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Mildly diverting celebration of loserdom.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

A shrill and forced comedy that laughs at, not with, its characters.

| Original Score: 2/4

Each spike of satire is fitted with a safety-cap of feelgood reassurance.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

Utterly repellent characters; totally implausible narrative. Overhyped project of the year.

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Little Miss Sunshine is easily one of the best films of the year.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

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