Little Miss Sunshine
The movie “Little Miss Sunshine” directed by Valarie Faris and Jonathan Dayton, displays a lot of important topics and norms, such as family problems, addiction, overcoming your struggles, and objectifying young girls. Topics like this are shown when Olive, the young daughter, is invited to go to a beauty pageant and her family has to join her. The movie highlights their trip to get to the pageant, and everything that happens on the way.
One of the norms at work in the film was addiction. According to AddictionCenter.com, 21 million Americans struggle with at least one addiction and only 10% of them receive treatment. In the film, Olive’s grandfather struggles with heroin. It caused him to be kicked out of his home and have to live with his son. Unfortunately, Olive found him unresponsive in their hotel on the way to California, and he ended up passing away. I think the film did a good job of showing how his addiction affected not only his life, but his families, especially when he died. “Little Miss Sunshine” also hints that Sheryl, Olive’s mother, has a cigarette problem.
Another topic, or norm, shown in the film was the objectification of young girls. At the beginning of the film, it shows Olive watching the older girls in the beauty pageants and copying their mannerisms. She was idolizing their bodies, and aspiring to be them. There was even a scene where Olive eating ice cream was discouraged because it would make her “fat” or “not skinny.” At the Little Miss Sunshine pageant, there were young girls, probably ages 7-10, in revealing bikini outfits and piles of makeup. They were doing dances and acts that were probably not appropriate for their age, but that was the norm for the pageant. Then, the crowd, judges, and other contestants were taken aback by Olive’s dance performance because of the risque or inappropriate moves, which is ironic. It is definitely interesting to see how that issue is portrayed in a movie from 2006 and how everything still applies to issues today in 2021.
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