Saturday, August 19, 2006

Travelogue Day 22

15/6/06

Little Miss Sunshine (2006, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris)
Family coming together, learning to embrace differences.

Alan Arkin's grandpa is the highlight of the film. Greg Kinnear's character is an aspiring self-help guru, but no one wants to buy his nine steps to being a winner. The son can't stand the antics of the family and takes a vow of silence until he enters the Air Force Academy. Steve Carell is uncle Frank, the foremost Proust scholar in America who tried to kill himself after his grad student lover ran off with his rival. Olive, the daughter obsessed with winning the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. Toni Collette is the mother trying to hold them all together.

Everything is great, but towards the end of the film, many of the jokes are easily foreseen. Despite this they pull it off


Footy Chicks (2006, Rebecca Barry)
Mediocre at best examination of the world of footy groupies. Most know what they're getting into, and all of them seem to dislike most of it but continue to keep themselves in that world.

The highlight of the film is Jane, an 80 year old footy fan who makes needle-point, tapestries, and poetry about the players. She particularly likes the players' muscular legs and bums. Her screen time is the only enjoyable aspect of the film.

5 comments:

Laura said...

That's all you had to say about Little Miss Sunshine? Where's the uproarous laughter?

Vampire said...

Oh, there was plenty of that. I just don't think I was on with writing things down that day.

Did I laugh? Yes. A lot. I didn't cough up a lung like Devon, but if I'd had bronchitis, I would have been laughing enough to do so.

Grinth said...

Sure......conveniently leave out the fact that you tried to STEAL my lung when I coughed it up....you sick bastard.

Vampire said...

Hey, if I'd have succeeded, I wouldn't be getting loans for this school year.

That lung would have fetched a good price on the black market after I'd given it a little clean.

Laura said...

Are you sure Dev's lungs aren't too far gone? I mean, just because they call it the black market doesn't mean they take charred organs.

[Sorry Dev. Cheap shot.]