Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Rolling Stone
3 stars out of 4 -- "[S]omething wonderful: a scrappy human comedy that takes an honest path to laughs and is twice as funny and touching for it." 08/10/2006 p.112

Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "[S]martly and sympathetically executed....Feelgood fun for all the dysfunctional family." 10/01/2006 p.42

Uncut
4 stars out of 4 -- "[W]hat makes this one fly is its warmth. LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE is a first-class love-letter to a family of losers." 10/01/2006 p.148

Sight and Sound
"The perfect casting makes for some exceptionally confident comedy....With accessible humour and universal themes..." 10/01/2006 p.66

Rolling Stone
Ranked #9 in Rolling Stone's "The 10 Best Movies Of 2006" -- "It's hilarious, heartbreaking and achingly true." 12/28/2006 p.118

Ultimate DVD
5 stars out of 5 -- "Full of eccentric but believable characters, witty dialogue and pitch-perfect performances....Touching, hilarious and quirky..." 03/01/2007 p.104

ReelViews 8 of 10
It takes a deft hand to fashion a feel-good movie with plenty of laughs and an upbeat ending out of a story that includes drug addiction, a suicide attempt, a death, Nietzsche, and Proust. Despite treading through a minefield of tone shifts, co-directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris and writer Michael Arndt reach the other side unscathed. Little Miss Sunshine is a small gem - or, considering the inclusion of hot star Steve Carell and the $10 million price tag paid by Fox Searchlight to acquire the distribution rights, perhaps not so "small." Smiles will be in evidence of the faces of audience members exiting a showing of this movie...Over the course of 100 minutes, Little Miss Sunshine covers a lot of ground. The bulk of the film encapsulates the road trip. Similarities to the recent R.V. exist, but this production is fresher, funnier, and less artificial...Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette form the backbone of Little Miss Sunshine's skeleton, but their workmanlike performances are the least notable. Paul Dano does a lot with a role that robs him of dialogue, and Abigail Breslin (who made her debut in Signs) shows herself to be more capable than about 95% of the performers in her age group. She's talented, understands her part, and avoids the terminal cuteness that afflicts too many portrayals by young actors. Steve Carell surprises by playing it straight. Unlike Will Farrell, who was awkward in his non-comedic turn in Winter Passing, Carell's performance is unaffected. He gets some laughs, but not by doing anything outrageous or extreme. Finally, there's veteran Alan Arkin, who steals every scene he's in. Over the years, Arkin has honed his timing and means of delivery, and they serve him well here...It's the kind of picture audiences enjoy because there's substance to go with the humor, and movie-goers will leave the theater feeling uplifted. Ultimately, despite flirting with some darker subjects, Little Miss Sunshine lives up to its name. - James Berardinelli
 
Chicago Sun-Times 9 of 10
The first thing we see are the blue eyes of a little girl staring right at us so intently, it seems she could peer right into our souls. Only she's not looking at us. The reflection in her big plastic glasses reveals she's gazing at a beauty pageant on TV, at the moment the winner is being crowned. She's studying this moment, rehearsing it and rehearsing for it. Just a few seconds into "Little Miss Sunshine" we know it's a movie about dreams -- and illusions...A gentle family satire and a classic American road movie, "Little Miss Sunshine" harks back to the anti-establishment, countercultural comedies of the 1970s such as "Smile" or "Harold and Maude" -- satirical fairy tales that preached the virtues of nonconformity over the superficiality of conventional American values...You just won't see a better acted, and better cast, movie than "Little Miss Sunshine." These actors (and their directors, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris) grasp how unspoken reactions can be funnier than dialogue or punchlines, and how pain can be the source of the most satisfying comedy...All the actors play the emotions straight and true. Dano, his dead black eyes obscured by thick bangs and set into a pale face that seems to be imploding with teen alienation and disgust, just has to tilt his head almost imperceptibly to bring down the house...Carell is a miracle in pink-and-blue-striped socks. He creates a character whose pain surrounds him like a hard plastic bubble. And the less he seems to do, the funnier he gets. He makes the name "Nietzsche" (which he pronounces crisply as "Neet-chah") inexplicably hilarious. And how to describe the way Uncle Frank runs? It's an intellectual run -- performed as if the act of running had been studied, broken down into its component parts, and then reassembled -- all analysis, no grace. It's almost inhumanly human, and pricelessly funny. But it's not just a sped-up silly walk, it's an authentic expression of character. - Roger Ebert