Little Miss Sunshine

[MacGuffin]

"Sunshine" directors are "Teacher's" pets

The husband-and-wife directors of "Little Miss Sunshine" are hot for "The Abstinence Teacher," a project based on the forthcoming novel by Tom Perrotta, the author of "Election" and "Little Children."

Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris are in negotiations to shoot the project for Warner Independent Pictures. Perrotta will write the adaptation. He co-wrote the adaptation for current release "Little Children" with the film's director, Todd Field.

"The Abstinence Teacher," scheduled to debut in the fall from St. Martin's Press, is set in small-town middle America, where a divorced sex-education teacher and mother of two is forced to contend with the town's more conservative groups. While fighting to keep her freedom to teach students about sex, she finds herself falling for her daughter's born-again soccer coach.

[Gold Trumpet]

I saw this film in the summer and quickly forgot it. Yet another American Beauty inspired flick where a surbuban family is re-enacted by cliche characters that each can be summed up in a sentence and end up finding their predictable resolutions. The film tries to stay cutting edge by utilizing outrageous situations, but its all still very bland. The daughter is memorable for pure charm and the Grandpa is funny the way a TV sitcom comic relief character is. Nothing more.

[pete]

spoiler minor

Way more.
First of all, the situations were actually funny.  Secondly, the family members are decidedly way less suburban than American Beauty and movies of its genre.  These people still have dreams and hopes.  There is no extra-marital sex, no moody shots of lonely streets, and no material wealth or even material comfort.  Grandpa's speech his granddaughter in his last scene is beautiful and totally elevates him from whatever sitcom you're talking about.

[grand theft sparrow]

I avoided seeing this in the summer because my girlfriend and her friends came out of it raving about it (they agree with PTA on it being the year's best too), so it was automatically overhyped and I know I would have been underwhelmed if I had seen it then.  So she bought it yesterday and I watched it today and I liked it.  I didn't love it, I didn't feel any warm hug, but I wasn't depressed by it either and would voluntarily watch it again.  If families were more interesting to tell stories about, more family movies would be like this.

People have mentioned Vacation and American Beauty already on this thread and if you throw a touch of Napoleon Dynamite, there you are.  The comparisons to Garden State end at the Fox Searchlight Pictures logo.

Once again, I find myself in agreement with modage about it being Indie 101 but still charming enough to be enjoyable.  The biggest complaint I have is that it just didn't feel like enough happened.  It's really just a few long scenes with not much else going on.  It's not a terrible thing but I feel like we were shorted on the characters, that their quirks were supposed to be enough for us to know about them.  It is just enough for us but it could have been better.

But it could have been a lot worse too.

[Pubrick]

But it could have been a lot worse too.

yeah, it's not bad. the girl is adorable, and in the right state of mind the ending could be really uplifting or heartwarming or whatever. instead of "is that it?" which is what it is.

i don't mind films where nothing happens, but like you said there are long scenes where we all know how they'll end (the colour blind moment where that dude has his shot at a supporting actor oscar). and while these scenes were character-building, they didn't really build anything we didn't already see coming. and the film had no ending, it ended at its climax. i enjoyed the bit at the hospital and the little fat girl in general.. it's her movie.

definitely overrated, by pete of all ppl.

[picolas]

spoils

i didn't think this was very good. it was better than the trailer made me think it was though. the biggest problem i had with it was how the family had no idea what their daughter was going to do in the competition and the daughter didn't seem to understand the concept of a pageant despite it somehow being her dream which is never really explained/explored aside from "do you think i'm pretty?".. it doesn't make sense. i thought carrell was pretty good. i thought the story until they got to the competition was good. but the actual writing/interactions between the characters wasn't.

[w/o horse]

I'm using this movie to calibrate my opions about all of you.

Pete's film's avatar stays duh.

[socketlevel]

i loved the movie, good indy comedies are so rewarding, squid and the whale and this are at the top of my list this year.  with prestige, fountain and departed

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

I believe The Squid and the Whale came out last year.

Spoilers

About LMS, though, I have to agree that the ending was a bit lack luster.  At some points the dad's dialogue and actions were boringly predictable, the son screaming was something we were waiting for (but it didn't mean it was completely necessary).

[last days of gerry the elephant]

On the first watch, it was an enjoyable movie. But after watching it a second time later on, it... well... what modage said.

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

Has anyone seen the alternate endings, and if so, what are they?

[JG]

what really, really got me was the last scene. 

i knew you guys would see it my way. 

[last days of gerry the elephant]

Has anyone seen the alternate endings, and if so, what are they?

What are they? They are a waste of time.

Really.

The only real variance in the 4 are two in which... (spoiler)
The family rushing from the building carrying the stolen pageant trophy, as they jump into their car and drive into the distance.

[pete]

dear little miss sunshine:
though xixax has turned its collective back on you, I still love you.

[Pozer]

steve c, book em dano, slums of bh dad & little missy s herself made this quite wonderful.  look at me being all quirky.