This week I chose to watch Little Miss Sunshine. This movie is not what you would expect from its title. It is actually rated R, but I think if the grandpa was not in it it would go back down to PG 13. This movie is about a family taking an impromptu trip to California for their daughters beauty pageant. The characters in this bus were a father who wrote a 9 step book on success, a mother who was tired of hearing these 9 steps, a brother in law who recently tried to commit suicide, a son who hated his family and was training to be in the services, a grandfather who was reliving his glory days through his story, and a not so pretty daughter competing in Little Miss Sunshine. The cast itself helps us anticipate a bumpy ride. Dead or alive their goal was to reach California.
Throughout the chapter in the book it discussed different lighting and talked about language. I believe this movie made me look at the language in movies a lot more than I would have realized. Throughout the movie the son did not speak, but was triggered when he realized he was colorblind. He ran out of the car and screamed “FUCK!” His first words were cursing out his family. He went from only writing in his notebook to finally letting out all he wanted to say. There was a lot of cursing in this movie, but only when Olive, the daughter had on headphones.
Lighting also played a big role in this movie. Lighting is the best way to set up the mood for the movie. It has the power to help set up a scene and the emotions behind the scene. Most of the movie involved the family while they were driving, but most of the scenes were in the day. They had a 3 day drive, but only showed scenes of outside during the day. This uplifted the already tense car ride. The movie dealt with a lot of sad aspects such as the grandfather dying, Olive being called fat, Dwayne, the son, learning he can’t fly jets, and the father not getting his job. Regardless of all the bad things happening around the family they kept the background in the daytime. It helped support the fact that everything will be alright.
Every person can be a winner, you just need to find the inner winner in you.
-Ketan Kumar (@Ketan_KumR)
Art and History of Film 