Little Miss Sunshine

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.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

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

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Sly, near-perfect comedy.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

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

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?

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

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

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.

USA Today Claudia Puig

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

Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves

Funny, and thoughtful, and deeply, viscerally satisfying.

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.

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.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A painful, funny and fresh comedy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Carell's physical comedy is close to genius.

Time Richard Schickel

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

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.

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.

Washington Post Jennifer Frey

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

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.

Austin Chronicle Toddy Burton

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

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

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

ReelViews James Berardinelli

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

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

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

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A smart, dark road comedy.

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.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

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

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.

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.

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.

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.