3 posts tagged “comedy”

In bullet form, because I am lazy today:

• Much funnier than I expected
  
• I was a bit surprised by how...tolerant, I guess, the people at the Southern dinner party were
  
• I thought it was pretty funny that the one feminist that seemed to catch on to the Borat gimmick was the elderly lady - a lot of the time older people are kind of uppity and don't like being "duped" (e.g.: the rodeo guy)
• There is not enough alcohol in the world to erase some of this movie from my brain, and I really wish there was (though oddly enough it was much less horrifying than Kids)
• Alan Keyes's appearance was really unexpected and made 5000% funnier in light of all the nonsense he spouted when he ran for Congress here in 2004
  
• I am amazed that Sacha Baron Cohen was able to stay in character the whole time
• The biting social commentary is ultimately worth all of the horrifingly awkward and cringeworthy moments.  The church and fratboy scenes were scary, no doubt.  But I thought the most important scene in the entire movie was the rodeo one.  The fact that his ridiculous statements had to go as far as implying nuclear holocaust before he got any kind of reaction besides approval was very telling of the mindset of a small but very powerful segment of the population.
• The funniest scene for me was actually a deleted scene.  Borat telling the doctor about his retarded brother's lobotomy really hit my comedy funny bone.  I think it might have had something to do with the completely random inclusion of a woman's tooth in the procedure.
  

I didn't quite know what to expect when I started watching Little Miss Sunshine.  These three things are what I knew about it beforehand: Steve Carell, Sufjan Stevens's "Chicago," and it's supposed to be funny.

Honestly, I was bracing myself for disappointment.  How often are "hilarious" movies that everyone raves about truly hilarious?  Add "quirky" and "indie" to the mix and you've got a recipe for disaster.

I was not expecting the visceral reaction I had to this film.  I loved it to pieces.

I guess what spoke to me the most was how real the movie, and the characters in particular, felt.  Of course, the premise (dysfunctional family goes on road trip) is nothing new and the characters were all over the top in one way or another (Grandpa and Dwayne being the most notable examples), but it just doesn't feel cliche when you're watching it.  That, to me, is the mark of a well-made movie.  Everything about Little Miss Sunshine is pitch perfect: writing, editing, casting, cinematography, the music, the performances (Steve Carell being the stand out, believe it or not) - all completely on the mark.

I'm out of practice when it comes to reviewing, so I'm going to end this soon before I start babbling incoherently.  One thing that I want to touch on though is what really drew me into the movie.  It wasn't the humor (and yes, it WAS funny).  It was the moments where these crazies were a real, actual family.  The sweet little things - how Dwayne's a moody angst machine and "hates everyone" but loves Olive despite himself; how Frank is as much a part of the family by movie's end as anyone else in the car; how, despite being a total asshole to Olive the whole movie, Richard was horrified at what was happening at the pageant and thus to his little girl.  Those are the kinds of things that made this movie such a treat.

Watch and tell me what you think!