THE AVERAGE AMERICAN FAMILY

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

I realize no one wants to see a movie about an average American family. Who wants to watch a woman pick up her children at daycare and thaw a frozen meal for her family? Who wants to watch a man sitting in front of a television with his pants unbuttoned and picking lint out of his naval? Who wants to watch 2 or 3 ungrateful kids playing video games and calling their mom and dad by their first names?...NO ONE. However, maybe, just maybe people might want to watch a family like above going through a crisis such as a grandparent's death or a move to another state because the father lost his job. There are nearly hundreds of possible realistic story-lines that could be used to make an average American family interesting.

The following is an example of how Hollywood views the average American family.
The father: A struggling motivational speaker whose "9 step plan" couldn't motivate a starving Etheopian to take a bite out of a big-mac.
The grandfather: Living in his son's basement and is a drug addict.
The uncle: A suicidal homosexual college professor in love with a student.
The son: Has not spoken in over 900 days to show dedication to his dream of becoming an airforce pilot.
The daughter: A chubby 9 year-old with large glasses who dreams of participating in a beauty pageant.
The mother: She views all of the above as being normal.

Believe it or not the above family exists in the movie LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (LMS). LMS tells the unbelievable story of a FUBAR family that attempts to travel from Albuquerque NM to San Diego CA so their daughter can participate in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. In addition to the description of the family above there are other incredible circumstances in the film such as: 1) They are making a trip in an old VW van that can only be started by hand pushing it until it gets to 15 mph. 2) The grandfather is the daughter's pageant coach and dies on the way to the contest of a drug over-dose. 3) The token homosexual, (is it possible for an indy film NOT to have a homosexual featured in it?) in one of the biggest coincidences in movie history, meets the student he is in love w/ and a rival professor who said student is dating at a remote gas station between Albuquerque and san Diego. 4) When at the pageant the little girl, as her talent, does a striptease along with all of the weird family doing the same on stage.

The problem with the above storyline and descriptions of the family is that the film makers act as if this is a normal family experiencing normal situations. For example, when watching a film such as VACATION the audience knows not to take the the crazy series of events the Griswold family experiences to seriously. When Aunt Edna croaks and the family attaches her to the roof of the car...We know a family wouldn't actually do that. In SUNSHINE, when the grandfather dies of an overdose, the family steals his body from a hospital and stuffs the stiff in the back of their van. The film-makers are pompous and takes the audiences intelligence for granted. The Aunt Edna roof scenes are funny. The over-dosed grandfather scene isn't funny...It's as if they movie is saying..."Wouldn't you and your family do the same"? No, we wouldn't, I belong to an average American family. LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE gets a "2".