[attrition] review: Movie: Little Miss Sunshine

[lyger]

http://attrition.org/movies/lms.html

Little Miss Sunshine
(2006)
Czarina

Little Miss Sunshine is an off the wall, rollicking picture of an acutely 
dysfunctional family that has a warm and fuzzy finish. Reminiscent of 
Malcolm in the Middle, the film tracks a family's calamity-filled road 
trip from New Mexico to California to compete in a child beauty pageant. 
With Murphy's Law prevailing at every turn, what should have been a 
mundane, uneventful journey became a misadventure that would test the 
family bonds of even the Waltons.

Our story opens with little 7 year old Olive Hoover (the adorable Abigail 
Breslin: Signs) watching a beauty pageant on TV and mimicking the actions 
of the contestants -- living her fantasy of being crowned vicariously 
through them. Although Olive has placed as a runner up in a local 
competition, she is dying to participate in the prestigious Little Miss 
Sunshine pageant, but coming in second place doesn't give her a spot in 
Little Miss Sunshine. However, luck is on her side as the winner loses her 
crown, and Olive now has a chance to go to California for the pageant. The 
entire family is behind her, but they are strapped for cash and can't 
afford to fly, so they decide to pile into the family's raggedy ass VW 
bus, and they stab westward towards the Golden State.

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