History Film / LittleMissSunshine

Richard (Greg Kinnear), the father, is an aspiring but failing motivational speaker who has plunged all his time and money into his Nine Steps program. His wife Sheryl (ToniCollette) is a homemaker and mother of Olive and Dwayne (Paul Dano). Dwayne is a brooding teenager with an obsession with Nietzsche, who's taken a vow of silence until he achieves his dream of becoming an Air Force pilot. Olive is a precocious little girl with a close relationship to her grandfather. Grandpa (Alan Arkin) is a dirty, debauched old man with a sharp sense of humor and irony. Rounding out the clan is Sheryl's brother, Frank (SteveCarell), a bitterly sarcastic scholar who just tried to commit suicide over losing his job and the man he loves.

* AtomicFBomb : [[spoiler:Dwayne. To elaborate, he wants to fly in the Air Force, and has sworn not to talk until he does. He does very well with his vow, until he finds out he's colorblind, and won't be allowed to fly. He starts flailing out in the back of the van. The others get Richard to pull over, and Dwayne immediately jumps out, runs several yards away, and curls down into a small ball, before letting out a resounding "FUCK!" and bursting into tears.]]

* AtomicFBomb : [[spoiler:Dwayne. To elaborate, he wants to fly in the Air Force, and has sworn not to talk until he does. He does very well with his vow, until he finds out he's colorblind, and won't be allowed to fly. He starts flailing out in the back of the van, jumps out while it's still moving, runs several yards away, and curls down into a small ball, before letting out a resounding "FUCK!" and bursting into tears.]]

* TheAllegedCar: Their [=VW=] bus.

* OnlySaneWoman: Sheryl is the only member of the family who doesn't have a quirk of any kind.

* ShoutOut: Possibly. [[spoiler: Frank manages to [[MontyPythonsFlyingCircus summarize Proust in 30 seconds]]]].
* SilentSnarker: Dwayne.

* TakeThat: The entire film is allegedly a TakeThat to a speech by ArnoldSchwarzenegger in which he claimed to hate "losers."

Richard (Greg Kinnear), the father, is an aspiring but failing motivational speaker who has plunged all his time and money into his Nine Steps program. His wife Sheryl (ToniCollette) is a homemaker and mother of Olive and Dwayne (Paul Dano). Dwayne is a brooding teenager with an obsession with Nietzsche, who's taken a vow of silence until he achieves his dream of becoming an Air Force pilot. Olive is a precocious little girl with a close relationship to her grandfather. Grandpa (Alan Arkin) is a dirty, debauched old man with a sharp sense of humor and irony. Rounding out the clan is Sheryl's brother, Frank (SteveCarell), a bitterly sarcastic scholar who just tried to commit suicide over losing his job and the man he loves.

It's a touching and sweet film, with a very sinister edge, and became a huge hit with artsy critics and casual film fans alike.

* CoolOldGuy: Grandpa, to some extent.

* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: Parodied. Frank says this exact line after they leave Olive at a gas station.
* [[spoiler: OfCorpseHesAlive: Smuggling the dead grandfather out of the hospital]]

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The catalyst for the movie was a comment by ArnoldSchwarzenegger that the people he hates most in the world are losers. The screenwriter took offense to this comment, believing that everyone is a loser in some way, but that doesn't make them a bad person. He wrote the screenplay to refute that kind of black-and-white thinking.

--> '''Frank:''' You must have been very busy.
--> '''Grandpa:''' Ho oh. I had second degree burns on my johnson, I kid you not.

* {{Hypocrite}}: The whole pageant, apparently it's okay to have little girls parade around in bikinis with tons of make up on, [[spoiler: but Olive's act is going too far]].

* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The trailers for the DVD showed clips from the [[spoiler: the burlesque routine]], which came as a surprise if you saw it in theatres.

* WelcomeToHell: "Thanks Dwayne. Coming from you that means a lot."

[[BlackComedy Dark, dysfunctional]] and wildly hilarious family comedy about a [[RoadMovie Road Trip]], directed by husband-and-wife team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris.

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<<|{{Film}}|>>

8-year-old Olive (AbigailBreslin) wants to participate in the titular beauty pageant located all the way in California. So her parents, brother, uncle and grandfather all drive her there in the only transportation they have: a broken down bus that's already coming apart. [[HilarityEnsues All sorts of misadventures and complications occur along the way,]] involving Nietzsche, Proust, a stripper routine and a dead body.

8-year-old Olive (AbigailBreslin) wants to participate in the titular beauty pageant located all the way in California, so her parents, brother, uncle and grandfather all drive her there in the only transportation they have: a broken down bus that's already coming apart. [[HilarityEnsues All sorts of misadventures and complications occur along the way,]] involving Nietzsche, Proust, a stripper routine and a dead body.

It's a touching and sweet film, with a very dark edge, and became a huge hit with artsy critics and casual film fans alike.

8-year-old Olive (AbigailBreslin) wants to participate in the titular beauty pageant located all the way in California, so her parents, brother, uncle and grandfather all drive her there in the only transportation they have: a broken down bus that's already coming apart. [[HilarityEnsues All sorts of misadventures and complications occur along the way,]] involving Nietzsche, Proust, a stripper routine and a dead guy.

* ActorAllusion: [[ToniCollette Sheryl]] tells her daughter "look at me" when the latter gets upset, and she needs someone to talk to. [[TheSixthSense When else has she done that to her kid?]]

* TomHanksSyndrome: This was a surprisingly serious role for Steve Carell.

* MentorOccupationalHazard: Grandpa, who teaches Olive her routine and supports her the whole way, [[spoiler: dies halfway to the pageant.]]

* MentorOccupationalHazard: Grandpa, who teaches Olive her routine and supports her the whole way, dies halfway to the pageant.

Richard (Greg Kinnear), the father, is an aspiring but failing motivational speaker who has plunged all his time and money into his Nine Steps program. His wife Sheryl (ToniCollette) is a homemaker and mother of Olive and Dwayne (Paul Dano). Dwayne is a brooding teenager with an obsession who's taken a vow of silence until he achieves his dream of becoming an Air Force pilot, while Olive is a precocious little girl with a close relationship to her grandfather. Grandpa (Alan Arkin) is a dirty, debauched old man with a sharp sense of humor and irony. Rounding out the clan is Sheryl's brother, Frank (SteveCarell), a bitterly sarcastic scholar who just tried to commit suicide over losing his job and the man he loves.

* RuleOfPool: Averted. Richard gets into a poolside argument at one point, and for a moment it seems inevitable he'll end up pushing his antagonist into the pool, but he doesn't.

* SirSwearsALot: Grandpa and Dwayne [[spoiler:after he breaks his vow of silence.]]