Little Miss Sunshine

The Hoover family is a mess. Richard, a wannabe motivational speaker, preaches a rigid nine-step program for success that has yet to deliver. Sheryl, his exhausted wife, tries to hold everyone together. Her brother Frank, a once-prominent Proust scholar, is recovering from a suicide attempt after a romantic and professional disaster. Richard's foul-mouthed father Edwin, recently kicked out of his retirement home for snorting heroin, tags along. And Dwayne, Sheryl's teenage son from a previous marriage, has taken a vow of silence until he achieves his dream of becoming a test pilot. Into this chaos comes nine-year-old Olive, a bespectacled, slightly chubby girl who dreams of winning beauty pageants. When she gets an invitation to compete in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in Redondo Beach, California, the family piles into a broken-down yellow VW bus and sets off on a cross-country road trip. Directed by Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton from a script by Michael Arndt, the film stars Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, and Alan Arkin. Made on a budget of $8 million, it became a sleeper hit, earning over $100 million worldwide and winning two Academy Awards. A comedy-drama that balances sharp satire with genuine warmth, it remains a touchstone of independent American cinema. [edit]

The Hoover family lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, each member wrestling with personal failure. Richard Hoover (Greg Kinnear) peddles a nine-step success program that has gone nowhere, and a book deal he had been counting on falls through. His wife Sheryl (Toni Collette) smokes cigarettes in secret and tries to keep the household from imploding. Sheryl's brother Frank (Steve Carell), a Proust scholar, has just been released from the hospital after slitting his wrists following the end of a relationship with a graduate student and the loss of a prestigious fellowship. Richard's father Edwin (Alan Arkin) was recently evicted from his retirement home for using heroin and now lives with the family, doling out profane advice. Sheryl's son from a previous marriage, Dwayne (Paul Dano), has taken a vow of silence until he can realize his dream of becoming a fighter pilot, communicating only via notepad. And then there is Olive (Abigail Breslin), a nine-year-old girl with glasses and a gentle belly who dreams of winning beauty pageants.

Olive learns she has qualified for the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in Redondo Beach, California, and the family decides to make the 800-mile trip together in their aging yellow Volkswagen Type 2 bus. The journey is a series of mechanical failures and emotional crises. The van's clutch gives out, requiring the family to push-start it and jump in through the sliding door while it is moving. Richard learns his book deal has collapsed, and in a moment of distraction the family leaves Olive at a gas station before racing back. Dwayne discovers he is colorblind, destroying his pilot ambitions, and breaks his silence in a furious outburst before Olive comforts him. Edwin, who has been secretly coaching Olive in a dance routine, dies of a heroin overdose in their motel room. Rather than abandon the pageant, the family sneaks his corpse out of the hospital, wraps it in a sheet, and straps it to the roof of the van, continuing toward California.

At the pageant, the Hoovers encounter a world of fake tans, spray-on hair glitter, and hyper-competitive parents pushing their daughters into grotesque adult poses. Richard, who has spent the entire trip lecturing on the importance of winning, begins to see the emptiness of the pageant culture. He tries to stop Olive from performing, but she insists. Her routine, choreographed by Edwin to Rick James's Super Freak, is a clumsy, gyrating spectacle that horrifies the judges and audience. The pageant officials demand she stop, but the family, one by one, climbs onto the stage to dance alongside her. The film ends with the Hoovers, united in their defiance, leaving the auditorium as the police stand by. They push-start the van one last time and drive off, having lost the pageant but found something more important.[edit]