I finally saw this "comedy"! Comedy????? Are you people smoking crack. This was one of the saddest, most disturbing films I've seen all year. Much darker then The Departed. The pedophilic-pageant at the end with all the Jon Benet Ramseys' made me sick to my stomach. Why do people think this movie is "cute"? Did anyone actually see it? Suicide, drug-addiction, failed dreams, bankruptcy, child-exploitation; this movie is dark, dark, dark. No one and I mean no one has described it to me properly. There is so much pain packed into this film. I wept at the end. I keep thinking about the yellow buses we're all pushing up hill while trying to keep our relationsips intact and maintain a little dignity.
I avoided this film cause I don't like cute films but for me this movie was a serious drama with some great laughs but a "comedy", I don't think so. Maybe the title enforced the notion that it's a cute film (even my best friend said she thought it was cute) but maybe if it had been called American Beauty or Ordinary People it would have been seen for the tough, hard-hitting drama that it was and been awarded more trophies. Certainly Greg Kinnear and Steve Carell gave performaces as complex and real as any of the other nominees this year. Oh well. I'm so glad I finally saw it.
4 comments:
I saw "Sunshine" in SF last September with my sis at a little "art" theater out on Cabrillo St. in the Richmond District. It was a spur of the moment thing because we had had dinner somewhere around there and I needed cash and there was an ATM across the street. There were about 12 people in attendance and five of those left before it was over. I never wrote about it on my blog because "Eh" didn't seem quite enough of an entry. Then it got all this attention and Oscar shit. Who knew? Oh...and I thought Alan Arkin sucked.
This film was cute. It was also dark, tragic, quirky, sad, empathetic and funny. Kind of like life. The problem film makers have is that the marketing system demands that films be only one of these things at a time. When a film sneaks through with many simulateous layers going on at once, the marketing people don't know which aspect to advertise. And many people in the audience will only resonate with one or two levels. So there is a huge opportunity for people to miss what is going on.
I thought it was the best film since I Heart Huckabees.
Yet another film i saw on an airplane, but managed to stay awake through. I'm actually looking forward to renting it and watching it again. I really liked it. It's definitely one of the best I've seen in the last year. I want Bella to see it. Like Jay said, it works on many levels and it works well as a whole, I think. It reminded me of Everything is Illuminated too, mostly because the old man dies I suppose, but the humor and the tragedy make it very real. I also cried at the end.
The film is hilarious and played for laughs. Don't you agree?
Just because it's not shallow or corny doesn't mean it's not a comedy. Not all comedies have to be cartoonish or end perfectly happy; in fact, the best ones are realistic.
Structurally, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE is a comedy because all the characters end up happier than they started out. Sure, all of them failed to achieve the goals they originally pursued, but the moral of the story is that "winning isn't everything."
Can you honestly describe it as a tragedy? Everyone is happier and feels better at the end -- Toni Collette and Greg Kinnear even ward off a divorce.
I would also argue that all comedies — cartoonish or otherwise — involve a main character who is in a tremendous amount of personal pain and struggling to avert an emotional tragedy.
What is humor if not pain and anger? Real frustration? That's where jokes come from.
I see LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE as a substantive, adult comedy.
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