Little miss sunshine paper by Michael Rowe

Setting (Yes)

3001569 — 2024-04-02 16:31:43 UTC

In the traditional road trip fashion, Little Miss Sunshine follows the setting almost perfectly in some scenes. for example when we see the family driving through the country, there is literally nothing around them besides other cars of course, but it gives it a sense of if something were to go wrong where would they exactly go which for most road trip films add a sense of wonder. another great example of how the setting captures the road-trip style is the highway they are all driving on, almost every single road-trip film out there consists of a highway at some point or another.

Characters (Not really)

3001569 — 2024-04-02 16:32:06 UTC

In a typical Road-trip film viewers are expected to see a functional family, a family that gets along and in some cases might look almost perfect in the eyes of the viewer. But we don't really get that in little miss sunshine, In the film we get the Hoover's a dysfunctional family who in more spots than one are struggling to make it through, you have the Dad who relies on his book, the 9 steps to success only for it to fail later on in the movie, we also get Uncle Frank who is depressed and tried to take his life and he now has to have supervision at all times to ensure his safety. all of these characters have no true relation to each other because even the grandpa who is supporting Olive is a drug addict, overall these don't fit the regular characters you'd see in your typical road-trip film.

Plot (yes)

3001569 — 2024-04-02 16:32:38 UTC

The genre of tragic comedy has a way of turning horrible moments into comedic relief and I feel like Little miss sunshine fits almost perfectly. One specific example of this is when the grandpa dies, at first we are left this devastating scene as we see the family destroyed, the mom is crying and the daughter is crying as well, it all makes us the viewers feel their pain, that is until they have the bright idea to take their dead grandpa with them to the pageant and begin to smuggle him out of the hospital, in the end we are left with a tragic sad scene ended funny and chaotic. this scene alone captures exactly what a tragic comedy is, in all its twisted fashion. Another perfect scene of this is when their clutch for their car burns out and it seems like all hope is lost for the hoovers until they had the good idea to push start it to bypass the gear, this scene gave the viewers no hope until we had confidence that they could get the car to run again, this scene captures two different emotions in such a short amount of time

Iconography (Yes) - motels

3001569 — 2024-04-02 16:32:55 UTC

In road-trip films the most iconic places you see are motels, mechanic shops, maybe gas station diners to, and little miss sunshine covers all of that throughout the film. the most iconic place though has to be the diner the Hoovers stop at, in this scene we get a diner stuck in the middle of nowhere which road trip films are famous for having, the diner typically made of metal on the outside with a truck stop attached to it all adds to the iconic road trip style. another iconic location is the motel usually a 2 story motel, its here we see the Hoovers take their first full rest stop for the night, at a motel that honestly doesn't look to bad inside or out. Both of those places play a keen role in how a road-trip film is supposed to play out, because they usually have those in the middle of nowhere for people on the road needing to take a break for a little bit.

Mood (Yes)

3001569 — 2024-04-02 16:33:11 UTC

In typical Road-trip style we are left with a family who in more ways than one are dysfunctional and don't necessarily get along, throughout the film we get to love and hate majority of the characters as well as the overall mood of the film feels like a roller coaster of emotion, In little miss sunshine we get a sense of sadness when we lost probably the most funniest character halfway through the film that being the grandpa. Road-trip films like to make it feel like a roller-coaster almost like one thing after another has to go wrong to keep the film interesting and Little miss sunshine does that a lot to, like for example when Richard lost his shot at getting a book, the mood was more angry, Richard felt defeated in those scenes as he desperately tries to get it back but ultimately fails to do so. Another scene that changes the mood of the film entirely is when the car decides to break down for the Hoover family, and they are forced to push start it from the mechanic shop, in the end we are left with this funny scene as we watch the entire family struggle to get in the car, it makes us the viewers laugh and the entire mood uplifts.

Cinematic style (Yes)

3001569 — 2024-04-02 16:33:26 UTC

Finally roadtrip films tend to use a lot of overheads and side views of the car but Little miss sunshine does something a bit different, not only do they have a lot of overheads and medium close ups they also have scenes where they have the entire family in shot which in the world of cinema is a rare thing to come across. Little miss sunshine fits the cinematic style that the genre of Road-trip expects, one specific scene that shows the entire family in 1 shot is when they are pushing the car to get it to start so they can continue their road-trip to the pageant, in this shot we get full view of the entire family but its far enough to where we can still tell who is who, this chaotic scene not only has that but it also has medium close up shots as we get to see some of the characters struggle to make it into the van. an example of an overhead shot is when we see Dwayne lying in the bed, in this shot we are left with just his upper half as we see him smile over his parents arguing.

Larger message

3001569 — 2024-04-03 13:15:25 UTC

In the film Little Miss Sunshine directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valarie Harris. I think the larger message is, "No matter what happens you always got family" the reason I think that is because throughout the film we are left with a family who doesn't get along at all, but as we see them spend hours and hours in a car together and all the events that happened it brought them closer, and as we saw at the end they all joined Olive at the end because they realized nothing more mattered besides family.