Film review

A few weeks from now my College Comp I class will begin their film review. Over the years I've shown Jaws, The Natural, The Incredibles, War of the Worlds, Crash, but the one that seems to work best is Little Miss Sunshine. I have a few who dislike it - and some who even hate it - which is fine - in fact good - it shows taste. But the majority of the students are taken with the film.

The first time I showed it, we had a great discussion about one of its main themes: family. A few students argued how dysfunctional and odd the family was. However, I had one student in particular, Mark, who held his ground and argued that this family was dysfunctional, but, he argued that is how MOST families are.

We might not like to admit it, but we all have a bit of dysfunction in our families. In fact, I'll argue that most families are closer to the family in Little Miss Sunshine than the 'typical' romanticized version of family like June and Ward Cleaver from Leave it to Beaver.

Regardless, the transformation the families undergoes on their trip to take their daughter, Olive, to the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in California is brilliant. All families should strive for such transformation.

I'm going to show the class a clip from Toddlers and Tiaras (see the post below) to prep them for the world of children and beauty pageants. I only wish those children and their insane mothers (and fathers) would realize the genuine meaning of beauty, as the Hoovers do in Little Miss Sunshine.