I went to see Little Miss Sunshine
last weekend. For some reason I went in expecting to chuckle and smile,
but not to belly laugh. I expected the film to be a bit over the top, a
tad too gimmicky, and generally another Napoleon Dynamite wannabe. There's definitely a formula young filmmakers have been trying to hit since the success of Napoleon Dynamite at Sundance in 2004.
So my expectations were moderate. Going into a film this way always
helps, but I think even if my expectations had been on steroids I would
have been thoroughly pleased with Little Miss Sunshine. Each
character, while conceptually over the top (with the exception of the
mom), was played perfectly. (Steve Carrell as the uncle was
particularly brilliant and perfectly understated.) Similarly, even
though many of the plot's premises are over the top, they work. You
don't sit there thinking "That wouldn't happen." You sit there laughing
like a fool.
So back to formulas. Obviously, some things really make a good story, a
good film, and those things should be paid attention to and learned
from. (It's not like Sunshine is the first road trip film ever
created, or the first with an overly angst-ridden teenager.) And even
though legitimate formulas can be traced between successes like Sunshine and Napoleon,
I still think the "anti-formula" has to be at the heart of a film like
this if it's going to make it. It has to be fresh, like Napoleon was when it came out. I think Sunshine is the perfect balance between what works and what's fresh.
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