Little Miss Sunshine (2006) ft. Christine Duncan and Heather Stewart

Guests:

• Christine Duncan

  • Wife of Dana and Mother of Tom

  • 19x guest

• Heather Stewart

  • The Revisionist Almanac's Senior European Correspondent

  • @heatherjstewart on IG, X, Letterboxd

  • Previously on Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Cast:

• Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, Directors

• Michael Arndt, Writer

• Tim Suhrstedt, Cinematography

• Mychael Danna, Music

• Pamela Martin, Editor

• Greg Kinnear as Richard

• Toni Collette as Sheryl Hoover

• Steve Carell as Frank Ginsburg

• Paul Dano as Dwayne

• Abigail Breslin as Olive

• Alan Arkin as Grandpa

• Bryan Cranston as Stan Grossman

Background:

• Little Miss Sunshine debuted at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2006 making this its 20th anniversary.

• On a reported budget of $8 million, the film would gross $101.1 million finishing 59th at the worldwide box office for 2006.

• Critics were very laudatory of the film at the time, and, despite comedy often going overlooked at the Oscars, Little Miss Sunshine managed to be nominated 4x for Best Picture and Supporting Actress (Breslin) while winning for Original Screenplay (Arndt) and Supporting Actor (Arkin).

• The film was turned into a brief stage musical in 2011 and 2013.

• Little Miss Sunshine holds a 91% among critics on RT, an 80 score on Metacritic, and a 4.2/5 on Letterboxd.

Plot Summary: Little Miss Sunshine is a comedy-drama about the Hoover family, a group of very different people trying to support one another. When young Olive Hoover (Abigail Breslin) qualifies for the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant, her parents—motivational speaker Richard (Greg Kinnear) and stressed but caring Sheryl (Toni Collette)—decide the whole family will travel with her from New Mexico to California. They pile into a rundown yellow van that becomes the setting for both humor and tension.

Along the way, Olive’s foul-mouthed grandfather Edwin (Alan Arkin), her depressed uncle Frank (Steve Carell), and her silent, angry teenage brother Dwayne (Paul Dano) each face their own struggles. As the trip goes wrong in unexpected ways, the family learns that winning is not as important as sticking together. The film balances comedy and emotion to show how love and acceptance can come from even the most imperfect family.

Did You Know:

• Michael Arndt had to quit his job as Matthew Broderick's assistant to write Little Miss Sunshine. The movie's story is inspired by an event from Michael Arndt's childhood where his family drove 600 miles in a VW bus with a broken clutch.

• The production crew made sure Abigail Breslin really was listening to music in her headphones to keep her from hearing Alan Arkin's profanity-laced scenes.

• All of the girls acting as participants in the "Little Miss Sunshine" beauty pageant, except Abigail Breslin, were veterans of real beauty pageants. They wore the same costumes, including hair and makeup, and performed the same talent routines as they had in their real-life pageants.

• Abigail Breslin wore a fat suit for the part of Olive.

• Bill Murray was the original choice to play Frank. The second choice was Robin Williams. Robin Williams turned down this film in favor of another road trip film, RV (2006).

• Michael Arndt, who wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for Little Miss Sunshine, used the supporting character name "Stan Grossman" as a tribute to Fargo (1996), another Best Original Screenplay.

Best Performance: Alan Arkin (Grandpa)/Steve Carell (Frank)

Best Secondary Performance: Steve Carell (Frank)/Paul Dano (Dwayne)

Most Charismatic Award: Abigail Breslin (Olive)/Alan Arkin (Grandpa)

Best Scene:

• Dinner Discussion

• Am I Pretty

• Ice Cream

• Gas Station Meet-Up

• Escaping w/ Grandpa

• Pulled Over

• Color Blind

• Do You Eat Ice Cream

• Talent Competition

Favorite Scene: Escaping with Grandpa/Dinner Discussion/Color Blind

Most Indelible Moment: Running with the VW/Escaping with Grandpa/Color Blind/Am I Pretty/Talent Competition

Best Lines/Funniest Lines:

Grandpa: A real loser is someone who's so afraid of not winning they don't even try.

Grandpa: Jesus, I'm tired. I'm so fucking tired. You know how tired I am? If a girl came up to me and begged me to fuck her, I couldn't do it. That's how tired I am.

Richard: Oh my God, I'm getting pulled over. Everyone, just... pretend to be normal.

Olive: I'd like to dedicate this to my grandpa, who showed me these moves.

Pageant MC: Aww, that is so sweet.

[Audience applauds]

Pageant MC: Is he here? Where's your grandpa right now?

Olive: In the trunk of our car.

Dwayne: You know what? Fuck beauty contests. Life is one fucking beauty contest after another. You know, school, then college, then work, fuck that. And fuck the air force academy. If I wanna fly, I'll find a way to fly. You do what you love, and fuck the rest.

Frank: Have I mentioned that I am the preeminent Proust scholar in the US?

Olive: Do you eat ice cream?

Miss California: Yes. My favorite is Chocolate Cherry Garcia... except technically I think it's a frozen yogurt.

Richard: Sarcasm is the refuge of losers.

Frank: [sarcastically] It is? Really?

Richard: Sarcasm is losers trying to bring winners down to their level.

Frank: [sarcastically] Wow, Richard, you've really opened my eyes to what a loser I am. How much do I owe you for those pearls of wisdom?

Richard: Oh, that ones on the house.

Sheryl: [after Frank tried to commit suicide] I'm so glad you're still here.

Frank: Well, that makes one of us.

Grandpa: [to Dwayne] Fuck a lotta women, kid, I have no reason to lie to you. Not just one, a lotta women.

Richard: Okay, dad, I think we get it.

Grandpa: [to Dwayne] Are you getting it? Is it going in anywhere? No, don't show me the pad. I don't wanna see the fucking pad.

Olive: [takes off her head phones and grandpa suddenly puts a pauses to his ongoing swearing] What are you guys talking about?

Grandpa: Politics.

Frank: Did you know that "a la mode", in French, translates literally to "in the fashion"? A la moooode... It comes from the latin word modus to do or proper measure.

Richard: Frank shut up.

Pageant Official Jenkins: [outraged at Olive's talent act] What is your daughter doing?

Richard: She's kickin' ass... that's what she's doing.

Frank: Who is that? Nietzsche? So you stopped talking because of Friedrich Nietzsche? Far out.

Richard: There's two kinds of people in this world, there's winners and there's losers. Okay, you know what the difference is? Winners don't give up.

The Stanley Rubric:

Legacy: 6.38

Impact/Significance: 7.63

Novelty: 7.88

Classic-ness: 7.88

Rewatchability: 6.63

Audience Score: 8.9 (87% Google, 91% RT)

Total: 45.3

Remaining Questions:

• If there is a funeral for Grandpa, in which state is it?

• Does Richard ever have a successful lecture series?

• How long does Uncle Frank stay with the Hoovers?

• Of the four primary actors in the movie (Arkin, Dano, Kinnear, and Carell), who should have won the Oscar (regardless of lead or supporting)?