Little Miss Sunshine

   Recently watched 'Little Miss Sunshine' and it has been already 20 years since that movie came out. How has twenty years gone by. What is this movie about? Well...the story takes place in a small New Mexico town where a young girl (played by Abigail Breslin) wanting to get into a little miss sunshine pageant in California. 

   She enters the pageant while her father (played by Greg Kinner) is dealing with an opportunity of a lifetime. Meanwhile, her mother picks up her older brother (played by Steve Carell) out of a psychiatric ward after his life came crashing down.

    This movie would not be made today, but back in 2006, many people didn't know better. 

   Child beauty pageants were all the rage back in the mid 2000's. This movie shows one girl's obsession to win a pageant. She was considered a unique person and was being trained by her grandfather (portrayed by the late Alan Arkin)

    As they travel to California, a lot of things happen, some good.... some bad

   They have to ride in a beat-up van that breaks down, the horn is stuck, and the father is pulled over by an officer. Meanwhile, the older brother (portrayed by the criminally talented Paul Dano) takes a vow of silence until he gets into flight school.

   However; he is color blind and starts to blow up in front of everyone when he realizes that he won't be able to become what he wants to become.

  Alan Arkin won an Oscar for a supporting role in "Little Miss Sunshine" His portrayal as a fowl mouth grandfather who helps Olive get to the pageant even if he doesn't survive near the end of the movie. His overuse of drugs causes his character to overdose before reaching to their destination.

    Little Miss Sunshine was also nominated for best picture but lost to The Departed. 

   They finally made it to the pageant, but it seems Olive's brother and even father are having second doubts on her preforming after seeing how every other girl looks. Olive goes through with it and performs a disturbing routine with the music "super freak" People wanted her kicked off and disqualified, but it seems her family joins her and dances.

   They are later disqualified and are ok with it with Olive knowing her grandfather was helping her along the way.

  Twenty years later, this movie is still worth seeing. I enjoy it today. Sadly, we did lose Alan Arkin, and this movie would not be made today since having young girls' model or be in fashion shows seems highly.... inappropriate for today. 

  I guess, back then, people were into dressing up their young girls to put into modeling or down a runway. Not today