| 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.
|
| 100 |
Los Angeles Times
Carina Chocano
As ambitious, honest and subversive as any American movie since "Election."
|
| 100 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Ruthe Stein
Sly, near-perfect comedy.
|
| 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.
|
| 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?
|
| 90 |
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
A raucously entertaining slice of slapstick dressed up as domestic satire.
|
| 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.
|
| 88 |
USA Today
Claudia Puig
It has been a while since we've seen such a consistently funny and entertaining road movie.
|
| 88 |
Chicago Tribune
Jessica Reaves
Funny, and thoughtful, and deeply, viscerally satisfying.
|
| 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.
|
| 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.
|
| 83 |
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
A painful, funny and fresh comedy.
|
| 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.
|
| 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.
|
| 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.
|
| 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.
|
| 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.
|
| 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.
|
| 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.
|
| 80 |
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
Carell's physical comedy is close to genius.
|
| 80 |
Time
Richard Schickel
That metaphor is pitch-perfect, but the film works a little too hard at proving the vileness of beauty pageants.
|
| 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.
|
| 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.
|
| 80 |
Washington Post
Jennifer Frey
Mostly it's just funny. Really, really funny.
|
| 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.
|
| 78 |
Austin Chronicle
Toddy Burton
The result is a climactic scene that is pretty near perfect: both laugh-out-loud surprising and endearingly inevitable.
|
| 75 |
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
It's "National Lampoon's Family Vacation" with soul.
|
| 75 |
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Ultimately, despite flirting with some darker subjects, Little Miss Sunshine lives up to its name.
|
| 75 |
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
A charmer, a comedy with drama -- or vice versa.
|
| 75 |
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
A smart, dark road comedy.
|
| 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.
|
| 63 |
Premiere
Glenn Kenny
Diverting and often funny enough, largely thanks (as is not unusual in cases like this) to its cast.
|
| 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.
|
| 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.
|
| 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.
|
| 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.
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