Little Miss Sunshine

First question, what was the 40 year old virgin doing in an oscar worthy film?

About 5 minutes later, that didn’t bother me any more. I was looking for something light-hearted after the gory No Country For Old Men. This was looking good, we simply have a dysfunctional family going on a road trip as the little girl needs to be in California for a beauty pageant.

It is an extraordinary situation. We know in the end this family will have learnt a lot from the trip, but we don’t know what’s in store for us. “There are two kinds of people in this world, winners and losers.” This is a story about the losers. However, it is impossible not to love them. The cast is very strong as a whole, none of them disappointed. Despite my personal liking towards Steve Carell, Alan Arkin (Grandpa) was the most outstanding. My favourite moment is when Olive asks him if she is beautiful, his answer was both warm and very funny.

Although I like every bit of the film, the ending is worth a mention. It is extremely funny but raises a very serious question – we don’t want to lose, but what does winning in this world take? Do you really want to be among the winners? It makes us slightly uncomfortable, but that feeling would not last too long because the overall tone of the film is an encouraging one.

Watching Little Miss Sunshine, people smile and sometimes, laugh. At the same time, it is also very dark and tragic with moments of sweetness and absurdity.

Michael, watch this and discuss this with me before I forget! :D

No Country For Old Men

I love the shock factor of the opening 10 minutes. When you’ve no idea what a film is going to be about, nobody ever expects such brutality. There is hardly any music (if any at all?) and very little dialogue. What little conversing there is seems real and is straight to the point, yet subtly contemplative. The landscape is beautiful, and every scene of violence is extremely vivid and gritty. Despite the subject, it is oddly believable. Like many good movies, the story is not obvious from the very beginning.

The best part is definitely the assassin. His voice, his unwavering posture and occasional hints of humanity. He is basically more like a robotic killing machine and as a viewer, you can feel the fear that the characters might – the nearly mythic, indestructible, cold nature of the man. His interactions with victims prior to their savage murders is priceless! He is beyond dark and ghostly.

I think it looses its way a bit in the final quarter. However, the end, where The Sheriff is pondering his life and relays a random dream to his wife before saying “and then I woke up” is masterful!

There are deeper meanings here but I will have to watch again.