Preview

Little Miss Sunshine

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1623 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Little Miss Sunshine
Colorblind?

Little Miss Sunshine is a movie about a dysfunctional (yet oddly supportive) family’s road trip from hell. This extended family consists of a mother, father, her son from a previous relationship, daughter, uncle and grandfather. This film was released August 18, 2006 and won two Oscars for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Alan Arkin) and Best Writing, Original Screenplay. Abigail Breslin was nominated for her portrayal of Olive. Little Miss Sunshine was also nominated for Best Motion Picture of the Year. The film was nominated and awarded over 40 various awards. The Hoovers are a unique group, but they put the fun into dysfunctional.
Grandpa Hoover, portrayed by Alan Arkin, is a heroin addicted, porn enjoying, nursing home evictee with a colorful and obscenity laced vocabulary. He is working with his granddaughter Olive on a dance routine for a beauty pageant. Grandpa advises his step-grandson to have lots of sex with lots of girls (the young stuff is the best stuff) while he is still underage and can’t be charged as an adult. Grandpa also tells Olive that she is beautiful when she is feeling insecure – not because of her brain or her personality, but because she is beautiful. It was oddly touching and sweet. Grandpa Hoover was dead and wrapped in a sheet, in the truck of the VW bus in the frame I am discussing.
Richard Hoover, played by Greg Kinnear, is a motivational speaker touting the nine steps of success. The basis of which he repeats throughout the movie, “There are two kinds of people in the world, winners and losers, the difference is winners don’t quit.” He is frantically trying to get in contact with a man who is attempting to get a book deal to spread his ideas. He swings from strangely supportive by expressing his admiration of his stepson Dwayne for setting a goal and sticking to it (more about that below) and letting his cruel streak show by telling Olive that beauty queens don’t eat ice cream.



Cited: Giannetti, Louis. Understanding Movies Eleventh Edition. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008. Little Miss Sunshine. Dir. Jonathon Dayton, Valerie Faris. Perf. Greg Kinnear, Steve Carrell and Toni Collette. DVD. 20th Century Fox, 2006.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Soul Food flim analysis

    • 1656 Words
    • 3 Pages

    comedy, romance film with a whole lot of drama. Big Mama Joe, acted by Irma P. Hall, is one of…

    • 1656 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Little Miss Sunshine we first meet Olive Hoover, who as we can tell wants to be in beauty pageants. Olive and her family…

    • 872 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    archetype Essay

    • 688 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Little Miss Sunshine, is a film staring The Hoover family, where they trek from Albuquerque to the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in Redondo Beach, California, to fulfill the deepest wish of 7-year-old Olive, an ordinary little girl with big dreams. Along the way the family must deal with crushed dreams, heartbreaks, and a broken-down VW bus, leading up to the surreal Little Miss Sunshine competition itself. Olive’s father, Richard, played by Greg Kinnear portrays the archetype of the Apollo, “businessman”. Richard is a very strong willing, self confident, and aggressive character. Richard is striving to build a career as a motivational speaker and life coach who is also trying to sell his self-help seminar about how to be a winner in nine steps. These nine steps are extremely important to Richard and he does not quit repeating them thought the movie. Richard is very passionate about his occupation, along with the natural businessman archetype. His is constantly thinking about his work even when he is on a road trip to California for his daughter’s pageant show. One the way to California Richard gets the news that he lost an important contract that would have jump-started his motivational business and saved the family from financial ruin. This incident cause put such great stress and constant arguing between Richard and his wife. Richard takes the initiative of makes things right and takes a short trip to visit the man who turned down his contact while his family is sleeping in a hotel just 40 miles away. He put aside everything at the…

    • 688 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Richard Hoover Character

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages

    At the start of the film Richard’s character is introduced showing his strong ideas of winners and losers. When we first see his character he is giving a speech about his philosophy on the 9 steps to success, “There are two types of people in this world, winners and losers.” We know that this will be an important message throughout the film for Richard as this is how his character is first portrayed. It highlights the theme shown throughout the film of winners and losers, and we see the auditorium Richard is speaking to is almost empty which contradicts him as being a loser himself.…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fried Green Tomatoes

    • 1293 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In Fannie Flagg’s esteemed novel, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, characters and lessons from both the past and present inspire our main character, Evelyn Couch, to make changes in her life. The epitome of middle-aged misery and menopausal depression, Evelyn learns lessons from the stories and advice given to her by characters such as Mrs. Virginia ‘Ninny’ Threadgoode help her lift the veil of gloom cloaking her and aid her in reestablishing her dreams and goals – such as gaining a healthier and happier marriage with her husband, Ed, or losing all her unnecessary pounds. What sparks her journey to this better life, one she can actually look forward to at night rather than considering suicide, are the stories of a small Alabama town in the 1930’s and the residents who fight for happiness in a difficult time; Evelyn takes these stories of times past and uses the morals and advice given by Ninny to face each of her problems and attack every day with confidence. The transformation Evelyn embarks on is a sign of how strong she, or anyone, can be when their head is in the game, and as we see Idgie still selling her foods at the end of the book, we conclude that the past can live on even into the present.…

    • 1293 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The family is about to receive a large life insurance check because their father passed. The grown children are fighting over what their now widowed mother should do with the money. Walter thinks he should get the money because he is the man of the house now.…

    • 259 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Our film follows an extended family on their journey from New Mexico to California, as young daughter Olive prepares to compete in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant.…

    • 928 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    wizard of oz

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Influence is the capacity or power of persons to produce an effect on the actions of others. Victor Flemming, the director of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, depicts a message that revolves around the reversal of power and gender roles. Moreover, Dorothy is a child in her physical presence but lives the role of a hero as she leads the scarecrow, lion, and tin man to the Wizard himself. Through the archetypes such as the hero being a women, Cultural values, and the stages of the journey, Flemming raises the argument that in this case those who don 't have much influence in society are very influential in the Emerald City.…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sometimes life just does not allow us to reach our goals, sometimes people find bumps and rough patches between them and their dreams, and sometimes it seems like the only option is to give up and move on, however, if you really want something and don’t get it at the first attempt, are you a loser for failing or a success for trying?. Michael Arndt’s script, “Little Miss Sunshine”, tells the story of Olive Hoover, and how her dream of participating in a children’s beauty pageant brings her, and her dysfunctional but caring family into an eventful road trip from their home in Albuquerque, New Mexico to California. In the 2006 movie adaptation of the script, by following the stories of Olive’s…

    • 825 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    fried green tomatoes

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is about a middle aged woman named Evelyn who loves to listen to thrilling stories from Mrs.Threadgoode. Mrs.Threadgoode tells Evelyn some of the most outrageous stories about her life that made me laugh,cry,skeptical,and even horrified for what could happen next!…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Breakfast Club

    • 1007 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Who ever thought a detention can bring so many experiences? During the Breakfast club, Andrew Clarke and Bryan Johnson have shown characteristics that are very similar to me. While John Bender has shown characteristics and personalities that are complete opposite to my personality. I relate to Andrew Clarke’s characteristics because he is an athlete, respectful to others and gets easily angered in which is what I am since I am also an athlete, respectful to others and get angry easily. I also relate to Bryan Johnson characteristics because he is smart, obedient, and he is a peacekeeper to others and I am also smart in school, I am obedient and a peacekeeper to others. Finally, John Bender is a know it all, has no motivation and a loud mouth and I have motivation for my work and I am not a loud mouth.…

    • 1007 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Little Miss Sunshine

    • 955 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A system is a set of interrelated parts. Systems theory assumes that a system must be understood as a whole, rather than in component parts. It is a way of looking at the world where all the objects are interrelated with one another. Many family systems are addressed in the movie Little Miss Sunshine.…

    • 955 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Happy Gilmore

    • 1032 Words
    • 3 Pages

    You can choose a movie from the list below. Your goal is to identify federal tax issues and how the tax law should be applied. Also, if relevant, discuss how the actions of the character involved would be altered if significantly influenced by the tax factors.…

    • 1032 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Breakfast Club

    • 853 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A mental disorder is a mental or behavioral pattern, is an anomaly that causes distress and disability. Mental disorders are defined by a combination of how a person feels, acts and thinks, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), over a third of people in most countries have problems at some time in their life (diagnosis of one or more of the common types of mental disorders), and the causes of mental disorders in some cases are unclear. According to: http://en.wikipedia.org…

    • 853 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Little Miss Sunshine Essay

    • 1776 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Little Miss Sunshine directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, is about a family whose cross country journey to the Little Miss Sunshine child beauty pageant teaches them, and the viewer, that real life is about relationships and that these are more important than simplistic notions of winning or losing. Richard Hoover is the character who most exemplifies this message as he eventually recognises that his family and life cannot be defined by his ‘Refuse to Lose’ motivational programme.…

    • 1776 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays