The Little Picture That Shouldn't

There has been word that Little Miss Sunshine might prove spoiler come Sunday night at the Oscars for Best Picture. I'm sure there are lots of people who would just be giddy to see this cute little feel-good film take the top honor.

But not me.

Why? Because Little Miss Sunshine is nothing more than a cute little feel-good film. There seems to be some confusion between movies that make you feel good and good movies. Are they mutually exclusive? No. But when I saw Little Miss Sunshine I thought it was a nice movie. Not a great movie. A nice movie. I laughed at how crass Alan Arkin's character was and I laughed at the end when the little girl did her unexpected dance. Steve Carell did a nice job and I'm always a fan of Greg Kinnear. It was a road-trip movie with pretty cut-and-dry characters. No real complexities or heavy layers. And don't get me wrong. I enjoyed the movie. But let's not make it more than it is. And you know what? I'll hate the movie then. The little feel-good movie will be the movie I bad-mouth at every opportunity because if it wins Best Picture, it didn't deserve it. That's how I'm wired, good or bad.

So when I heard that it could prove spoiler, I thought oh no, here we go again. Last year, Oscar did the same thing with Crash. It was the unexpected. It was the underdog. You could practically feel the momentum gaining for Crash during the ceremony. Crash was hardly a feel good movie and I would argue that it wasn't even a really good movie. Unless you love plot-lines that are about 20 years old and a script written with one of the heaviest hands in Hollywood.

I can see the thinking. Voters checking the Little Miss Sunshine box thinking they are sending a message that says "hey, Oscar likes independent movies." And that's a load of crap. The Oscars shouldn't be about sending messages or making up for past mistakes (Scorsese anyone?) or trying to create a good headline "The Little Picture That Could" or "The Sun Shines On Little Miss Sunshine" or "Little Miss Golden Sunshine" or "Not a cloud in the sky, Little Miss Sunshine wins Best Picture." It should be about awarding the best movie, the best performance, the best writing, the best whatever for that year. It seems that it has become a political mess. And giving top honors to the feel good movie when it isn't deserving isn't going to make me feel any better about Oscar.

Lazy Eye Theatre - Wandering Film Talk