LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

Director: Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris (TV work)
Starring: Abigail Breslin, Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette

I don't have a doubt in my head that there will be a small group of viewers who absolutely ADORE this cute little film (and that's with a capital A D O R E, so you know I mean business). I heard a couple of them during my screening, snorting in their caffeine-free diet pepsis at every joke, and convulsing with rapture at the cutsie scenes. All I have to say to these people is "good for you". I'm glad you found something to make you so ecstatic. For my part, I wasn't necessarily one of these people, but I still liked the film. I saw a cute little crowd-pleaser with enough flaws to concern me, but not nearly enough to turn me off.

I will admit I came into the theater a little trepidacious about this flick due to the overwhelming press it's been receiving since Sundance. (Frankly, I'm glad it's finally out so I can stop reading about it. The same goes for Snakes on a Plane.) I've never yet found a film so over-hyped to live up to expectations, so naturally I was worried. As is usually the case, though, the hype had some grain of truth to it, just not enough. This was a good film, just not the masterpiece that's advertised.

In fact, Little Miss Sunshine runs like a college composition on creative writing. There isn't a human being in this story. In their place are archetypes and symbols and, well, "things". Things are nice, but I've always liked people better. However, I think I'm getting ahead of myself here. It's also probably not the best idea to start off focusing on the negative, because really this was a perfectly enjoyable and immensely cute little picture despite the flaws.

It's a roadtrip pic following a family of, well, wierdos on a ride to a Jonbenet Ramsey-like childhood beauty pagent. The dad (Kinnear) is a failed motivational speaker. The uncle (Carell), the self-proclaimed world's foremost Proust scholar, is on suicide watch. The grandad is the most endearing dirty old man you'll ever see - equal parts herion addict and wise old sweet guy. The brother is on a vow of silence somehow derived from his Nietzsche infatuation. The mom's just a normal mom.

The little miss sunshine herself, a perky little chubby girl, must get to her pagent despite all of the obstacles in the way. Of course, with her sweet demeaner, I'm sure she'd be just as happy doing anything at all as long as it was with her family. Over the course of the film the family confronts their personal demons, but in the end they come together to help out the little angel in her contest.

I've got to admit that it was a funny (in a cute way) trip. I won't spoil the jokes, but I chuckled quite a few times. I should point out that the children's beauty contest creeped me out, however, which probably ruined the big ending for me. There's not a lot I find weirder or more disturbing than sexualizing little kids. I should note that the film was going for laughs by showing the contest, but it still literally gave me chills. Ugh.

So the flaws were the fairly amateurish writing and a creepy kiddie beauty contest. That's not enough to take away from the funny, uplifting story and the fine acting. Alan Arkin (as the grandad), Carell, Kinnear and Collette were all quite good in their roles and very funny. There were moments in this film that could have been sickeningly sweet, but somehow they turned out palatable, maybe even pleasing. So kudos. Little Miss Sunshine was a success.

Standouts: Cute script. Good Acting.
Blowouts: Amateurish characters and creeeeepy little kid's beauty pageant.

Grade: B+

TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY

Director: Adam McKay (Anchorman: ... Ron Burgundy, TV work)
Starring: Will Ferrell, John C Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen

Will Ferrell goes back to the well and pulls up another bucket full of broad, silly humor a la Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. I guess that's a pretty good thing.

It's hard to review a movie like this because by every conventional marker of a good story these sorts of broad comedies always fail miserably, and this one is no exception. I can go on ad nauseum about the flaws in this story: The love interest barely makes it onscreen. There is very little continuity in the conflict between the main characters. It just sort of jumps around to wherever it feels like going. Yeah, blah, blah, blah. I know as well as you do though, that these sorts of things don't matter at all for a movie like this. This isn't a 40 Year Old Virgin quality flick, or a Wedding Crashers quality flick. This is a Saturday Night Live skit extended to 90 minutes (just like Wayne's World, or Anchorman, or many other films of the sort). It lives or dies on whether that skit is funny. For my part, I thought it was pretty damn funny. Heck, I don't even think this humor needed a story to go with it - I found the outtakes that ran during the ending credits to be as funny as the movie. That should tell you where this movie lives.

I won't bother too much with the plot (I doubt it's all that important in the long run). For what it's worth however, Ricky Bobby is the story of a southern Nascar champion who is challenged, defeated, and humiliated by a gay French Formula One racer (Cohen) at his own game. He loses his trophy wife and his best friend (John C Reilly). He sinks as low as he can go, but of course eventually redeems himself by reconnecting to his mother, absentee father and a fairly random love interest. The French guy turns out to be all right in the end. His pot dealing dad turns out to be all right in the end. Everyone turns out all right in the end.

I've got to admit that all three main characters (plus a few of the other supporting characters) were just damn funny in this movie. Cohen was over the top in a Peter Sellers/Inspecter Clouseau kind of way. Reilly was just about the perfect dumb buddy to Ferrell's Nascar God. I found this flick funny throughout, occasionally even hilarious. I should note that its humor is very much of the silly, oddball variety that was in Anchorman, though. Like that film, I imagine some folks just aren't going to feel the same way that I do. If you liked Anchorman (like me) you'll like this. I liked it quite a bit more in fact.

Standouts: Silly, dumb hilarity.
Blowouts: Hoping for anything more than silly dumb hilarity.

Grade: B

WORLD TRADE CENTER

Director: Oliver Stone (Platoon, Nixon, JFK, many more)
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Michael Pena, Maria Bello, Maggie Gyllenhaal

Oliver Stone is on a losing streak. It happens to every actor and director at some point. I mean what did Martin Scorsese do in the 8 years between Raging Bull and The Last Temptation of Christ? The Kings of Comedy? After Hours? Ugh.

Oliver Stones record since Nixon in 1995 includes such classics as Any Given Sunday, U Turn, and the spectacularly unsuccessful Alexander. Not good. Not good at all. I'm sad to say that World Trade Center is not Stone's Goodfellas. This is not a great movie at the end of a bad streak. This isn't even a particularly good movie.

Of course neither is this a terrible movie. I'm pretty sure that I'm not allowed to dislike a film about 9/11. I particularly doubt that I'm allowed to dislike a film that applaudes the police and other service personnel who risked their lives in the terrorist attacks. So just for the record, I also applaud those men and women. They deserve the attention that this film brings to them. They deserve even more than that actually. Unfortunately, that doesn't make this a good movie. Frankly, this was about as safe, mundane and generic a film as could be conceived about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and those brave, dutiful policemen and firemen, etc.

If you've read my review of the recently released film United 93, you'll know I harbored a number of concerns about what exactly that film was trying to accomplish. I wondered if that film was honoring heros, or just capitalizing on our bad memories to sell tickets. For the record I'm wondering again. I hope that there are noble reasons, but I highly doubt that nobility enters into the discussion of Hollywood boardrooms. I highly doubt nobility enters into any boardrooms, frankly.

Regardless, World Trade Center follows two port authority police officers trapped among the wreckage of the fallen buildings after the attack. They fight for survival while their grieving families worry about them. For 2 thirds of the film, Nicolas Cage and Michael Pena are unable to move so we see only close ups of their grime covered faces. It's a decent story. It's a good idea to tell about these guys doing their jobs and suffering for it. I just don't like how it came off. The movie felt tacky, made-for-TV to me. Characters were broad. Dialogue was bad. These lines have been delivered in a thousand other (mostly bad) films. There's nothing new here. There's not even anything of the same that's looked at in a different way. It's cookie-cutter. Oliver Stone played it incredibly safe. Let's say he played it conservatively. Conservative works for investing. Conservative may work in politics if that's your thing. Conservative doesn't really do much in art. Art's all about progress. Art's all about seeing something new.

So, sacrifice and forgivness. Almost all the best stories are about them. They're the heart of the Christian story. They're the heart of western art since well before Christianity. It's the best that any story can be about because they're the best that a person can do. This story is about sacrifice. It's just not a very good story about sacrifice.

Standouts: Occassional powerful moments peppered throughout the film.
Blowouts: Silly bad characters and dialogue like the marine who finds the trapped officers in the rubble.

Grade: C+