« Sleater-Kinney | Main | The Wire »
Little Miss Sunshine
I bunch of people told me I had to go see this one, so I did, Friday night. And I loved it. Then, last night my friend who didn't care for it was trying to convince me the whole thing was fake, contrived, artificial, etc. And, in retrospect, I guess it was. But it seemed great while I was watching it. And that's what counts, right? Or does it? I can't really decide.
August 6, 2006 | Permalink
Comments
"But it seemed great while I was watching it. And that's what counts, right? Or does it? I can't really decide."
While you're watching it counts. But subsequent reactions count too.
When I first saw Donnie Darko, I didn't really like it. But over the next week, I found the movie sticking in my mind, and so I went back to see it a second time, and I loved it.
Conversely, slice o' life movies like Little Miss Sunshine often seem better during the initial viewing than they do in your memory.
-----
One thought on the question is provided by the Fat Man himself. From a review of Fincher's The Game:
Alfred Hitchcock used the term "refrigerator movie" to describe certain films. According to the great director, refrigerator movies are well-paced thrillers that work effectively while being watched, but fall apart upon later examination (while "standing in front of the refrigerator").
It's worth noting that Hitchcock wasn't using "refrigerator movie" as a term of derision, as he classed some of his own movies that way.
While this is a somewhat different issue - specifically about plot holes - it does involve some of the same elements.
Posted by: Petey | Aug 6, 2006 3:15:22 PM
Slightly off-topic, but I felt guilty enough about prior comments that I went rented From Hell. I retract previous criticisms, or most of them. (Fearless was still better.) I think I must have been confusing it with Mary Reilly or some other movie. No nude Heather Graham scenes counts against it, though.
Posted by: SomeCallMeTim | Aug 6, 2006 4:16:03 PM
"I went rented From Hell. I retract previous criticisms, or most of them. (Fearless was still better.)"
Film is a director's medium for the most part, not a screenwriter's. Bad movies can easily be made from good screenplays. From Hell is a reasonably lousy movie with a few nice moments, IMHO, but blame does not devolve onto Rafael.
And, yes, Fearless is much, much better.
Posted by: Petey | Aug 6, 2006 4:29:34 PM
Petey:
I agree with most of what you've said, and made the director/screenwriter point in the prior criticism. And I don't much care for the Hughes brothers. But the openning scene was really well done (I'm totally going to become an opium addict!), and the rest of it was, at worst, competent. It was a good movie. Depp was good, Ian Holm was excellent, and Graham wasn't horrible. I'm not sure for how much more you can ask.
Posted by: SomeCallMeTim | Aug 6, 2006 4:45:13 PM
"And I don't much care for the Hughes brothers."
They're inconsistent. Menace II Society was brilliant.
Posted by: Petey | Aug 6, 2006 4:56:44 PM
Worrying about plot gaps in a sweet film like Little Miss Sunshine is a waste of time. There were dozens of fun moments and genuine laughs, even if there were some cartoon moments as well.
The kind of movie for which this kind of retrospective pondering is appropriate is one like Miller's Crossing (Coen Bros.). The second time I saw it I was so disappointed...
Posted by: decayb | Aug 6, 2006 6:03:37 PM
The kind of movie for which this kind of retrospective pondering is appropriate is one like Miller's Crossing (Coen Bros.). The second time I saw it I was so disappointed...
WHAT?! I've seen Miller's Crossing probably 20 times, and it gets better every time. There is not a single frame, a single movement, a single word out of place in that movie. It is a work of perfection, probably my favorite movie of all time, but certainly in the top three.
As for the "later I realized I should have been more cynical and shit all over the movie" question, all I can say is: fuck that. Life's too short.
Posted by: Realish | Aug 6, 2006 6:31:20 PM
Don't overthink it. All stories are phoney if you think about them too much.
Posted by: chris m | Aug 6, 2006 10:19:45 PM
There is not a single frame, a single movement, a single word out of place in that movie.
I wouldn't go that far -- Finney's "artist with a Thompson" scene was just a touch too Coen-y over-the-top -- but it's one of the best American movies in the '90s. How the hell could you be disappointed by a reimagining of The Glass Key in which all the gender roles are topsy-turvy that didn't even bear a whiff of an academic gag? Let alone the acting and the cinematography.
Posted by: Steve | Aug 7, 2006 7:57:05 AM
Um. It's a movie. Of course it's artificial.
Posted by: Donald A. Coffin Donald A. Coffin | Aug 7, 2006 9:38:26 AM
All I know is the little fat girl gave one of the best child performances I've seen in a long time. The movie was a trifle, but thoroughly enjoyable. Toni Collette is consistently phenomenal.
Posted by: right | Aug 7, 2006 10:13:19 AM
Well, I decided a long time ago that I was going to stop pretending to be smart and admit that I don't want to spend my movie money or time on anything other than pure escapist pleasure, even if that does mean hiding my DVD collection where no one will ever, ever see it to be able to make fun of me for it. If I wanted to think, I'd read, damnit!
And what's with calling Abigail Breslin fat? She looks like a healthy little kid. (Honestly, she's adorable.)
It's like that business where Jeaneanne Garofalo's character in The Truth About Cats and Dogs was supposed to somehow be so hideous she couldn't possibly meet whats-his-name in person. Puh-leeze...
Posted by: flippantangel | Aug 7, 2006 10:56:20 AM
Flippantangel: She might not have been fat but she had one heck of a belly for a seven or eight year old. I just figured it was padding--that and the hornrims being an easy way to set her apart from the weird Jon-Benet types at the pageant.
My take on the movie? Definitely cliched, but man, that moment when the doctor suddenly yells "LINDA!"... Sweet fancy Moses, that was one of the most beautiful confoundings of typical cinematic pacing and tone that I have ever seen.
Posted by: max | Aug 7, 2006 1:48:39 PM
Movies of course are not reality. After watching Brokeback Mountain, I couldn't help but wonder if at least one of the guys didn't have lice, or the clap, making it all far less romantic. It was all so sanitary and perfect and that is not usually the case for poor down and outers. When I watched it again, I had to work hard to push reality out of the frames.
Posted by: hj | Aug 14, 2006 3:54:26 AM
The comments to this entry are closed.
