... while it is funny and poignant, it has the saccharine tang of artificial ingredients.
Comment
08/12/06
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
90
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:197
Fresh:178
Rotten:19
Average Rating:7.7/10
Consensus: 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.
Theatrical Release:08-09-2006
Synopsis: "Little Miss Sunshine" is an American family road comedy that shatters the mold. Brazenly satirical and yet deeply human, the film introduces audiences to one of the most endearingly fractured... [More]
Starring: Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin
Director: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
Reviews for Little Miss Sunshine
101 - 120 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
... a road-trip movie with a big-enough heart to make the leap from specialty theaters to the suburban multiplex - where audiences can feel fortunate if they don't recognize themselves.
08/12/06
Little Miss Sunshine gives the term 'crowd-pleaser' an upgrade.
08/12/06
Eccentric...heartbreakingly hilarious...terrific tension of inevitability...one of those movies that form my raison d'etre as a movie reviewer.
08/11/06
The repeated sight of the family jumping out to push-start their dilapidated van is wonderfully simple: these people will keep pushing forward, together, no matter what.
08/11/06
You embrace this film wholeheartedly... because after it gets the initial smacks of satire out of the way, it becomes genuinely heartfelt, full of raw emotional power in a way that isn't about satire...
08/10/06
The word 'quirky' is overused, but Little Miss Sunshine deserves the tag. As with Napoleon Dynamite, the quirkiness in this film comes from honest characters, not desperate-to-be-different caricatures in such films as Garden State.
08/10/06
[S]mart and funny and, at times, delightfully caustic.
08/10/06
Despite the indie-film stereotypes in the character profiles, the actors find the humanity in their roles and stick to it through every joke and tragedy.
08/09/06
Look beyond the Sundance hype and you'll see exactly the kind of mainstream comedy major studios should be churning out on a regular basis: warm, accessible and with a lot to say about our modern life.
08/08/06
Boils down to the movie version of that Blind Melon music video with the chubby girl in that bumblebee outfit.
08/08/06
To the filmmakers' credit, they don’t sugarcoat the creepiness. They mine it for the kind of laughter that makes you feel uncomfortable but also makes you think.
08/07/06
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.
08/07/06
An enormous amount of credit must go to its ensemble cast, who locate the realism in characters that could easily have been played as caricatures."
08/05/06
Ensemble cast is absolutely terrific.
08/05/06
Don't even think about missing this one! Sparked a bidding war at Sundance and is worth every penny. Riotously funny!
08/05/06
I realize that sometimes film critics become a little too effusive in their praise for a movie. But in this case, the enthusiasm is justified ---- this is one little gem of a film!
08/05/06
True laugh-out-loud movies are a rarity, and thankfully, 'Little Miss Sunshine' shatters the writing mediocrity of late. It is a witty, refreshing, often hilarious take on the family road trip, with great comic performances from the entire cast.
08/05/06
It's not often that high concept movies align themselves with intelligent writing and deft casting.
08/05/06
Though I didn't really buy any of it, there's catharsis in the go-for-broke ending and an absolute gem of a performance from Breslin.
08/04/06
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