Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
72 Adela
39 Adventures of Power
78 Afghan Star
61 After the Storm
66 Afterschool
xx All the Best
58 American Casino
72 Amreeka
48 Antichrist
73 Araya
62 Art & Copy
55 As Seen Through These Eyes
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
13 Beautiful Life, A
70 Beeswax
35 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71 Big Fan
66 Black Dynamite
51 Blind Date
xx Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76 Bliss
35 Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57 Boys Are Back, The
45 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
70 Bronson
45 Burning Plain, The
xx Carriers
55 Casi Divas
57 Chelsea on the Rocks
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
59 Collapse
44 Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
67 Departures
xx Dil Bole Hadippa
71 Disgrace
xx Do Knot Disturb
70 Earth Days
24 Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
xx Eulogy for a Vampire
xx Everyone Else
xx Fatal Promises
56 Fifty Dead Men Walking
62 Five Minutes of Heaven
74 Flame & Citron
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
28 Free Style
xx From Mexico with Love
50 Fuel
25 Gentlemen Broncos
50 Give Me Your Hand
58 Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
52 Grace
64 Harmony and Me
81 Headless Woman, The
xx Heretics, The
63 Horse Boy, The
73 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
74 Humpday
94 Hurt Locker, The
29 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16 If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75 In Search of Beethoven
83 In the Loop
61 Intimate Enemies
42 Irene in Time
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
19 Labor Day
xx Laila's Birthday
41 Little Ashes
41 Little Traitor, The
66 Liverpool
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
83 Maid, The
xx Ministers, The
59 More Than a Game
67 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
xx Mystery Team
48 New York, I Love You
73 Night and Day
66 No Impact Man
47 Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34 Other Man, The
xx Painter Sam Francis, The
54 Paper Heart
xx Paradise
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
44 Peter and Vandy
35 Play the Game
77 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx Pretty Ugly People
65 Providence Effect, The
76 Rembrandt's J'accuse
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
40 Shrink
61 Skin
77 Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx Skiptracers
46 Splinterheads
39 St. Trinian's
89 Still Walking
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
55 Storm
65 Tetro
70 That Evening Sun
72 Thirst
xx Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61 Trucker
xx Turning Green
83 U2 3D
66 Unmade Beds
66 Unmistaken Child
70 Visual Acoustics
55 Walt & El Grupo
67 Way We Get By, The
69 We Live in Public
64 Wedding Song, The
64 Where is Where?
xx White on Rice
74 Woman in Berlin, A
69 World's Greatest Dad
70 Yes Men Fix the World
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx You, the Living

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Little Miss Sunshine

EMAILPRINTFox Searchlight Pictures

Little Miss Sunshine reviews
80
7.4 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 36 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 348 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Comedy  |  Drama

Written by: Michael Arndt

Directed by: Jonathan Dayton
Valerie Faris

Release Date:
Theatrical: July 26, 2006
DVD: December 19, 2006

Running Time: 101 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for language, some sex and drug content

Starring Abigail Breslin, Greg Kinnear, Paul Dano, Alan Arkin, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Marc Turtletaub, and Jill Talley

Little Miss Sunshine is an American family road comedy that shatters the mold. Brazenly satirical and yet deeply human, the film introduces audiences to one of the most endearingly fractured families in recent cinema history: the Hoovers, whose trip to a pre-pubescent beauty pageant results not only in comic mayhem but in death, transformation and a moving look at the surprising rewards of being losers in a winning-crazed culture. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

TV Guide Ken Fox

What makes husband-and-wife directing team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' hilarious debut such a great family film isn't that it's suitable for the whole family (it's not), but that it speaks a simple truth about what it means to be part of one.

Read Full Review >
100

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

As ambitious, honest and subversive as any American movie since "Election."

Read Full Review >
100

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Sly, near-perfect comedy.

Read Full Review >
100

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

You won't see a brighter, truer affirmation of the All-American messed-up improvisational family than Little Miss Sunshine.

Read Full Review >
90

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

While the film itself isn't perfect, who cares about perfection in the face of abundant life, authentic screwiness and lovely surprises by the busload?

Read Full Review >
90

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

A raucously entertaining slice of slapstick dressed up as domestic satire.

Read Full Review >
90

Newsweek David Ansen

This indie, a sweet, tart and smart satire about a family of losers in a world obsessed with winning, is an authentic crowd pleaser. There's been no more satisfying American comedy this year.

Read Full Review >
88

USA Today Claudia Puig

It has been a while since we've seen such a consistently funny and entertaining road movie.

Read Full Review >
88

Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves

Funny, and thoughtful, and deeply, viscerally satisfying.

Read Full Review >
88

Boston Globe Ty Burr

It looks at the all-American obsession with winning and chortles darkly. You still come out of the movie wanting to give your family a hug.

Read Full Review >
88

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The irony is, this family isn't mismatched: All six bickering characters are connected by empathy as well as blood, and we wait for them to figure that out.

Read Full Review >
83

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A painful, funny and fresh comedy.

Read Full Review >
83

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

A prime example of a dysfunctional-family comedy that also doubles as a road movie. Even the vehicle of transport is dysfunctional.

Read Full Review >
83

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

In remarkably compact and quietly concise vignettes, we're introduced to each member, and immediately understand what they're all about.

Read Full Review >
83

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

The film accomplishes a remarkable feat of creative alchemy by breathing life and depth into characters that, in lesser hands, could easily have come across as grating caricatures.

Read Full Review >
80

The Hollywood Reporter Duane Byrge

A brainy blend of farce and heart, this is one of those movies that veteran moviegoers complain they don't make anymore.

Read Full Review >
80

Variety David Rooney

Pic's distinguished by a flawless cast, a gentle spirit of rebellion and a smart script by first-time screenwriter Michael Arndt that knows never to push its character quirks too hard.

Read Full Review >
80

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Little Miss Sunshine is an enchanting anthem to loserdom -- a dark comedy that piles on setback after setback and yet never loses its helium.

Read Full Review >
80

Slate Dana Stevens

The recent film it most recalls is "You Can Count on Me" (2000), another small treasure about a fractured family that managed to be moving without troweling on the sap.

Read Full Review >
80

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Carell's physical comedy is close to genius.

Read Full Review >
80

Time Richard Schickel

That metaphor is pitch-perfect, but the film works a little too hard at proving the vileness of beauty pageants.

Read Full Review >
80

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Tucked in between all the hurt and the jokes, the character development and the across-the-board terrific performances is a surprisingly sharp look at contemporary America.

Read Full Review >
80

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

As scripted by Michael Arndt, this isn't much more than a glorified sitcom, but it deftly dramatizes our conflicting desires for individuality and an audience to applaud it.

Read Full Review >
80

Washington Post Jennifer Frey

Mostly it's just funny. Really, really funny.

Read Full Review >
80

Empire Angie Errigo

Sharp, very funny, surprisingly moving and rejoicing in great work from the entire cast, this sparkling little gem takes the family road movie to unhoped-for heights of hilarity and humanity.

Read Full Review >
78

Austin Chronicle Toddy Burton

The result is a climactic scene that is pretty near perfect: both laugh-out-loud surprising and endearingly inevitable.

Read Full Review >
75

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

It's "National Lampoon's Family Vacation" with soul.

Read Full Review >
75

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Ultimately, despite flirting with some darker subjects, Little Miss Sunshine lives up to its name.

Read Full Review >
75

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

A charmer, a comedy with drama -- or vice versa.

Read Full Review >
75

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A smart, dark road comedy.

Read Full Review >
70

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

It's the journey that offers the most enjoyment. Well, that and the beauty pageant climax, which I won't spoil here, but is one of the funniest scenes from film in recent memory.

Read Full Review >
63

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Diverting and often funny enough, largely thanks (as is not unusual in cases like this) to its cast.

Read Full Review >
63

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Family. Can't live with 'em, can't kill 'em. Little Miss Sunshine, a stormy quasi-comedy destined to polarize audiences, is a perfect specimen of this unsentimental attitude.

Read Full Review >
63

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Though Little Miss Sunshine is consistently contrived in its characters' too-cute misery, the conclusion, which is genuinely outrageous and uplifting, is almost worth the hype.

Read Full Review >
50

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

If you're going to get on the wavelength of Little Miss Sunshine, you've got to be able to enjoy a comedy in which the characters fit into hermetically cute, predetermined sitcom slots.

Read Full Review >
40

Village Voice Jim Ridley

Like the shambling VW van its hapless characters steer from Albuquerque to Redondo Beach, Little Miss Sunshine is a rickety vehicle that travels mostly downhill.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 348 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Michael T. gave it a9:
I am amazed by some of the reviews here. If anyone here trusts user-submitted reviews, I beg you you to ignore any that are full of finger-shaking hyperbole and excessive use of first-year university words. This film is heartwarming, funny and charming. It's one of the few films I will watch when I want to be cheered up. It's Disney for tax-payers.

Francis C. gave it a2:
Although the movie has some good points, there was too much shouting, and the ending was very poor.

SHane M gave it a10:
Epic Film! Pretty funny considering the characters are all like sad!

Troels J. gave it a9:
I mainly love this movie because of the ending. Besides the characters (and the kind of chilled, anticute atmosphere) it's actually pretty much like any other comedy/drama all the way through the movie. But in the end, it just changes - and instead of just being a fairly entertaining movie, it ends up having a great message. Greater than most messages in movies nowadays.

Lisa From Australia gave it a10:
I loved this movie. A simple message effectively delivered. If you like REAL families then you'll love these people.

Michael M. gave it a9:
Some people think they are good critics like Tania and especially Jasper below because they vomit their extended vocabulary on to the computer screen, but they're not. Simply because it is easy to determine a character's personality or psychological state does not mean they are one dimensional or cliched. Acting, cinematography, music, direction in general is all great. Most normal people like this film.

Josh P. gave it a10:
This film captures everything a family's about. Dysfunctional and sometimes very strange but always honest. I feel sorry for you if you can't enjoy this film, it's the best light hearted comedy I've seen in years. Especially since it came out of America.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use