In his 12/29/06 post, The Bad Shepherd, Lally lists "Little Miss Sunshine" as one of his favorite movies of the year. Coincidentally, a few days before, I had seen it on DVD. Haven't laughed so hard in a long time.
I recently was talking with a good friend and enthusiastically pulled his coat to it. Being put off by the title, he asked me to tell him what it was about and why I thought it was funny. It was then I got a crystallizing flash of something I hadn't been able to grasp before: The better a comedy is, the harder it is to try to explain! Try doing justice by way of explanation to "Young Frankenstein," or "A Fish Called Wanda," or "Heathers" or all the really good comedies. Can't do it, right? Same deal with "Little Miss Sunshine." The reason of course is that a really good comedy is like laughter itself. It's ephemeral. So I just said, "Trust me, you'll laugh your ass off."
Conversely, I have no trouble doing my oral Cliff Notes for really great drama's... (short of holding back "spoilers" for people who haven't seen the play/movie yet). Great comedy? No way. So take the word of me and Michael -- trust us. We can't really explain it, but you'll laugh your ass off over "Little Miss Sunshine."
Let's all have a great New Year.
~ Tom
2 comments:
It turns out that it's all a matter of taste. After I posted my love of LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, I got some e mails disagreeing, from friends whose taste often coincides with mine. They just didn't get a lot of the humor. So sometimes, "you had to be there" is the only response. Lal
My favorite scene was when the son found out he was color blind and they sent Olive down the embankment to talk to him.
I won't give anything away but what she did next was just so sweet and so real.
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