‎Little Miss Sunshine (2006) directed by Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

Little Miss Sunshine

2006 Directed by Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris

A family on the verge of a breakdown

A family loaded with quirky, colorful characters piles into an old van and road trips to California for little Olive to compete in a beauty pageant.

Greg Kinnear Toni Collette Steve Carell Paul Dano Abigail Breslin Alan Arkin Bryan Cranston Beth Grant Wallace Langham Matt Winston Julio Oscar Mechoso Marc Turtletaub Jill Talley Brenda Canela Chuck Loring Justin Shilton Gordon Thomson Steven Christopher Parker John Walcutt Paula Newsome Dean Norris Lauren Shiohama Mary Lynn Rajskub Jerry Giles Geoff Meed Joan Scheckel Mel Rodriguez Casandra Ashe

102 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Katie ★★★★★ 4

I can't believe this movie simultaneously gave and cured my depression!
Review by DirkH ★★★★

A bittersweet ray of sunshine caught in a yellow van filled with actors who have rarely been better.

It also has one of the best dance routines ever put to film.

There's a lot more to say about this film, but in the end it will always boil down to this:

Watch it, embrace it, love it.

And that I did.
Review by Naughty aka Juli Norwood ★★★★★ 4

You truly can't judge a book by its cover!

I passed this film up time and time again because I had absolutely no interest whatsoever in viewing a film about some beauty pageant for children! If it was the last dvd on the planet I would have still avoided it like the plague!

So my son came home for a visit and lo and behold he brought a movie for us all to watch! When he identified it as Little Miss Sunshine I grimaced on the inside and forced a smile on the outside and feigned interest!

So we sat down, popped it in the player and pretty soon I discovered it was not the horrible film I was expecting!…
Review by lauren ★★★★★ 4

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

what i say: i'm fine
what i mean: 😭😭😭 you can't fly jets if you're color blind 😭😭😭
Review by ellie ★★★★★ 1

maybe if i watch this every day it'll be just like actually taking antidepressants
Review by 👽 Zara 👽 ★★★★½ 1

okay i have a few notes:

- paul dano is such a soft emo boi in this which is hilarious cause his character's name is fucking dwayne

- paul dano running out onto the grass, screaming fuck and breaking down on the ground is the biggest mood

- child beauty pageants are such a foreign concept to me cause they're not allowed in Australia so it's just so fucking wild to me ??

- paul dano

okay that's all i have to say thank you for your time

Recent reviews

Review by frogden ★★★★★

Well you're going to have to prise my love for this film from my cold dead hands!!!

Here we have it ladies and gents my favourite ever film!

I laff! I cry!! I make all my badbitch decisions to the sound of Superfreak!!

And it hits SUCH a raw nerve, because I was around Olives age when I became aware of my self image, and from then on where all my body confidence issues and insecurities came from. And it's honestly heartbreaking that little girls like her are THAT YOUNG when they become aware of the shitty shitty projections out society puts on women. And it's so so fucking hard to practice self love and acceptance when self hate has been engrained in you since a child due to pressures to look like some unattainable form of perfect. I'm so mad I want to flip a table
Review by Hank Mardukas ★★★½

I was forced to work the sound for a seminar on “Dramedies” at a Festival recently, led by a writer with no recognizable IMDb credits (but an old picture of him & Selma Hayek), that held his mic on his stomach, making me useless because the room is small enough that you can just project your voice, but I still had to sit there for 90 minutes, trying to not fall asleep, while he explained things to an audience of mostly rich white people, who are all screenwriters apparently, with work that I’m sure will never be produced, and it started with a clip from this (the chicken dinner/we’re taking a road trip scene) and then mumbled things you can learn…
Review by Alphan ★★★★★

Había escuchado cosas buenas de esta película, y ya he podido comprobar que es mejor de lo que pensaba.
Sus personajes son muy buenos y puedes sentirte identificado de cierta forma con alguno de ellos o con sus problemas. Todos los actores lo hacen muy bien, desde el veterano Alan Arkin
Review by Julia Kester ★★★★

Rating: B+
Review by turnmypaige ★★★★★

Beautiful film
Review by sophieserage ★★★★½

okay i really like this movie. i laughed. i cried. i connected with every single character and it reminded of my own family in a very odd way. i love toni collette and that’s all i have to say on the matter
Review by Eydís Kvaran ★★★½

Hræðilegir hlutir eru svo fyndnir
Review by waiyanaung ★★★★½

I am left with feeling of joy, happiness, a little bit of sadness and as soon as credits end I fall in love with this.

The story of Little Miss Sunshine follows a dysfunctional Hoover family, who are forced to go on a road-trip to California after their daughter was qualified for "Little Miss Sunshine" beauty pageant. Along the trip they all face with all kind of personal problems and finally learn how to be a team, a family.

The story seems simple, I would even say cliche but the driving force behind this film would be conceret solid script which gives us pretty relatable characters. All the six characters get runtime and space they need and not a single…
Review by rmrod ★★★★★

this movie made me really happy.