A delightful, hilarious feel-good movie
Little Miss Sunshine, which is on Freeview channel True Movies tonight at 9pm, is about a small group of underdogs that made a big splash. Which is not unlike the journey the film itself had.
Despite having name stars like Steve Carrell, Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette and Paul Dano in it, the script was written by first time screenwriter Michael Arndt, who’d go on to writer Toy Story 3 and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. It had a low budget of just $8 million, and was shot in only 30 days. When the film debuted at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, it sparked a bidding war, eventually being bought by Fox Searchlight pictures for $10.5 million – one of the biggest deals in the history of the festival. It went on to make over $100 million at the box office.
As for the film itself, Steve Carrell plays a struggling motivational speaker who drags his entire family on a road trip (in the iconic yellow VW van), so that his young daughter can enter a beauty pageant. It’s full of wonderful characters played by great actors, and both hilarious and touching.
Little Miss Sunshine is on True Movies tonight at 9pm.