Posted on 09/03/2006 8:38:11 AM PDT by pabianice
Hollywood is all abuzz about Little Miss Sunshine, a deftly presented piece of porn pretending to be a heart-warming Oscar contender. The bubbly adjectives simply swirl about this recent release: brilliant, deftly drawn, heartwarming, raucous, superb, human, engrossing, fun, ingenious, brilliantly hysterical, warm, moving, endearing, and more. The truth is far less sunny. Little Miss Sunshine is a $10 million kiddie porn movie that displays just how rotten Hollywood has become and just how far its powerbrokers have moved from America. That it was the hit of the Sundance Festival was pre-ordained.
Its hard to know where to begin in talking about this movie and what it tells us about the current business of making movies. The cast is, to be fair, very good, the direction competent, the scene dressing excellent. But the movie itself is tasteless and basically disgraceful, an updated version of All in the Family, in which evil, stupid Red America is brought up short by savvy, hip Blue America. Alan Arkin plays grandpa, an aging bum who snorts heroin (yuk, yuk) and was expelled from his nursing home because he is a dangerous, in-your-face loser who counsels others to live irresponsibly. One of his characters two sons has just tried to kill himself because he was jilted by his gay lover (audience eyes tear up because its so, you know, sensitive and, you know, PC). The other son is a financially failed, unsuccessful huckster of a step program for self-improvement who is taken advantage of by Evil Big Business. The teenage grandson is apparently a lunatic who is determined to get into the Air Force Academy and who has taken a vow of silence until he is accepted (that there is a huge poster of an F-18 a Navy airplane on his bedroom wall clearly escaped the schmucks who produced this film). We never learn how he plans to do well in high school while refusing to speak. In one violent sequence we learn what potential US military officers are really like when this clueless, friendless loner goes berserk. Nice touch, Hollywood.
And then there is the grand daughter, Olive, a perky seven-year-old who becomes the winner of a local talent contest when the winner is disqualified for what sounds like doping (although we arent sure). Olive has a routine of which we remain uninformed until the final sequence. During the 800-mile cross-country drive in a rolling deathtrap of a VW minibus (so, so, 60s! you know), grandpa dies of a heroin overdose while baby-sitting Olive (Manson family values are on display everywhere in this film), so the family steals his body from the hospital, wraps him in a sheet, and stuffs him in the back of the bus. This sequence simply sparkles with the kind of wit for which Hollywood has become so justifiably famous and was getting old when it was done in National Lampoons Vacation thirty years ago. Of course, the bus is stopped by a cop on the road, but no problem. The cop is, as are all cops, you know, a leering, loathsome policeman who, upon finding a stash of porn magazines, trades some comments with dad that are so uncomfortable for the audience as to make grandpas death look like an episode of Teletubbies.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
I am curious, why do you think businesses spend billions a year on advertising?
Could it be that these little 30 seconds spots can influence the way people think about somthing?
It is never just "a movie, or just a book, or just (fill in the blank)."
I do not know what the motive of the producers of this moive was, but good, bad or otherwise, it can influence people. If you do not understand that, they you understand nothing.
Having said that, why is it people that may find the whole concept (as described in the review) offensive not be allowed to comment on it. I have not read anything to this point to indicate that the produceers should be arrested and jailed for their movie, only that some find it offensive.
Does Hollywood have a monopoly on free speech?
I rarely " go " to the movies anymore. The only current film I'm curious about is Idlewild. I'll wait until it's out on CD and rent it.
You called me closed minded, on the basis of a single post.
You are trying to project an image of wisdom and forebearance.
You have failed.
You are projecting an image much different than what you think.
That's not really it - it's that there's a lot of people (and hardly confined to this board or to the Right) that derive near-sexual levels of pleasure from being constantly outraged at stuff. Somehow makes them feel special or makes their day more exciting.
Sounds like a MA pingout. I'll try to get to it later.
....heroine kills grandpa
That's the way I want to go!
(i'm sorry, had to be said)
In ARA's world, anyone with moral standards and principles obviously has a closed mind.
I haven't seen it and it doesn't sound interesting to me. I'm going to do the REAL "least people can do." I'm going to ignore it, just like I do with most of what comes out of Hollywood. You said it yourself: It's just a movie.
Sorry Mullah MHGinTN...
"Bill Maher love scene in it."......No sheep were harmed in the making of this movie?
Sounds kinda dumb, like the Royal Tannenbaums (though that movie had something like heart).
Satire is just completely lost on you isn't it?
.....but I do have a way to avoid throwing into the same sewer .......
With sincere advance apologies for the comparison but you have strengthened my argument and made Prince Bandar's point.....
"We want to modernize but not to westernize."
Or we could just tax all motion picture profits 91%, like the left did when it was in charge.
"We want to modernize but not to westernize."
What an interesting thing to say. Deserves it's own thread.
Hollywood mocks the beliefs, values and patriotism of half of America. They won't get a buck from me.
That would have to be Bill Mahr and a mirror...
Aside from seeing the occasional news story about Jon Benet Ramsey, I have absolutely no experience with child pageants, but I have to admit that I think the average 5 year old girl would absolutely love to dress up in a fancy costume, get up on stage and be the center of everyone's attention. I know my daughter would. I guess it's the sexualization of young children that make these things seem really creepy in comparison to something like a ballet recital. I also find it strange that this would be a part of them, (although it obviously is). I seriously doubt that many of the people involved with these pageants are pedophiles, so I'm a bit perplexed as to why they'd want to see 8 year olds acting like 18 year olds.
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