Little Miss Sunshine

Little Miss Sunshineⁱ recounts the story of a deeply dysfunctional family that somehow nevertheless still manages to function. Let's see the elements.

The Grandfather got kicked out of the retirement homeⁱⁱ for snorting heroin. He explains it very plainly, "I'm old", and in that explanation he is entirely correct. That's what it's for. He also gives occasion to a surreal hardassery scene where he first snorts what appears to be cocaine, and then sits down to enjoy the wallpaper. Literally, what whore cracks and public speaking, the man's going to watch the wallpaper peel and fuck you. Ever heard of something that hardcore ?

The Father is completely batshit insane and substanceless to boot, an exact replica of the imbecile besetting Applegate in Vacation. He bought some indistinct flavour of the usual, archetypical UStardian religion-ideology-bigcitylernin' that principally consists of 1. never give up and 2. never shut up. Very feminine, these sad scraps of neo-neoprotestantism. All that's left after the assorted miners and goatfuckers in our New World colonies finally made them part of their misshod bodies. Obviously such a stunted approach leaves him wedged in most practical situations. He's also insufferable, on a personal note, I'd much prefer rapists and insane murderers to Americans as they are.

The Sonⁱⁱⁱ correctly identifies the worthlessness of his progenitors, and while he's not inclined to set them on fire, he is inclined to forget about them. The scene where he finally breaks a year and a half of silence to tell his mother she is not fit to be related to him and to please get fucked already is just as much perfection as the grandfather's. Sadly it is played down for the needs of the viewer. Talk about censorship.

The Wacky Uncle is provided for comedic relief. The faggot actually imagines that there's a hierarchy of Proust experts in the US. He doesn't mean that there's one, accidentally stranded there briefly, Ovid something-or-the-other. No, he actually, literally pretends to believe that scarce soil and foul atmosphere produced something such as a hoven squarejaw capable of meaningfully reading Proust. What more can be said ?

The Wifemother (or sister-woman, if you're more familiar with the Williams terminology) is just there, that's about it. Scarcely worth the mention other than because were she absent it'd be noticeable.

The Daughter is a typical seven year old girl doing typical seven year old things. She's not unpleasant, but also not really worth wasting a name on just yet.

What these people proceed to do is go from Albuquerque to Los Angeles in one of those tiny, uncomfortable VW busses. Which breaks down, so they somehow find out about the clutch trick and keep parking it uphill. Except gramps dies, so they steal him from the hospital (excellent scene where the Clinton nigger gets bypassed -- and always remember, never EVER allow one of these uppity schmucks the last word!) and make it to some sort of pageant just about on time. So their daughter can play a striptease routine. The effect is rather strong.

The end.

1. 2006, by Jonathan Dayton, with Alan Arkin, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear. [↩]
2. Whom he ineptly paid in a lump sum upfront. Who the fuck does something this stupid, if you want meat you're going to pay for meat upfront "for the rest of this life" and trust the butcher's going to thereby "cut his own throat" for your interest ? After you gave away all bargaining power ? Really ?

   Just because you're the marrying kind doesn't mean the world now works that way. [↩]

3. Yes, males come first. Because they do. Shut up and sit down. [↩]