So, I got two comments and a taunting Email from my last post. Naturally, I’m thinking Little Miss Sunshine is really bringing in the hits to my blog, so I better give the fans more of what they want. So, here’s a snippet into my mind where I overanalyze the movie and life in general.
I’m pretty sure society is extremely wicked, screwed up, troubling, sinful…pick your adjective and/or verb. But, I have a hunch that in some sense it’s about a gazillion times worse than what we think it is. The reason it’s worse is because people show you what they think they want you to see. They pretty up their problems and misery so that they can keep up with the “prettiness” their neighbor has created in their own life. If the dressed up version is as bad as some of the dressed-up-versions are, I have a hunch that there’s a lot of crap going on behind people’s doors. Verbal abuse, physical abuse, internet porn of all shapes and sizes, prejudice, hatred…
But, what if people didn’t hide how depraved and flawed they really are? Think about it for a second.. Let’s imagine a church setting. What if the guy next to you in church told you that he looked at porn for two hours the night before? What if the lady next to told you that she beat up her husband with a frying pan the night before? …I think the cringe factor that I feel as I type those things is symbolic of the problem. We don’t want to know about it…probably for the same reason we don’t want to be part of a big brother program in the community or volunteer at the hospital or ask the family with the handicapped kid over for dinner. It’s inconvenient, it’s uncomfortable, it takes investment and follow up…etc.
…here Little Miss Sunshine enters into the equation. It’s a movie that shows a screwed up, “potty mouth” family coming to grips with who they are. Then, instead of prettying up who they are they celebrate their discovery. The reason I love the ending is that in about 5 minutes it tells the whole story of the movie in an allegory. I’m not going to argue that it doesn’t step over the line a little…but, I wouldn’t argue too much that it does, either. The reason why is that a naïve girl who has been taught an awful dance by her dirty grandfather is sort of what’s going on with us. It’s my belief that we’re made to be God-glorifiers…typically when we stumble into sinful actions in our life we do so naively…and, then we look as out of place as that girl did on stage. The comedy of the scene…the unusualness of seeing someone who isn’t pretending in that setting…the dark streak that goes through it all…there’s so many things going on all at once…this tension is what feels good and (for lack of a better word) “real” about the scene.
I think this brings us back to where I left off with my explaining-what’s-wrong-with-the-world paragraphs. Admitting the problem isn’t only part of the answer. Little Miss Sunshine ends with a celebration of the freedom of admitting your problems. If everyone went around admitting their problems all the time without doing anything about it, I think the digression may be exponential. But, I think part of the beauty of really expressing what’s wrong with you is that this release looks so ugly that we want to take care of it. Taking care of it appropriately is what Little Miss Sunshine is missing. Problems and ugliness appear too much like a yellow Volkswagen van that doesn’t run properly...if everyone pitches in together, then a community of people makes a bad situation not as bad and, in fact, the bonding experience of going down together is the beauty of it all.
…and, I think that’s all I have to say for the moment on Little Miss Sunshine. Be careful in the comment section, 3 comments and an Email might point toward more needless ramblings and run on sentences.
I’m pretty sure society is extremely wicked, screwed up, troubling, sinful…pick your adjective and/or verb. But, I have a hunch that in some sense it’s about a gazillion times worse than what we think it is. The reason it’s worse is because people show you what they think they want you to see. They pretty up their problems and misery so that they can keep up with the “prettiness” their neighbor has created in their own life. If the dressed up version is as bad as some of the dressed-up-versions are, I have a hunch that there’s a lot of crap going on behind people’s doors. Verbal abuse, physical abuse, internet porn of all shapes and sizes, prejudice, hatred…
But, what if people didn’t hide how depraved and flawed they really are? Think about it for a second.. Let’s imagine a church setting. What if the guy next to you in church told you that he looked at porn for two hours the night before? What if the lady next to told you that she beat up her husband with a frying pan the night before? …I think the cringe factor that I feel as I type those things is symbolic of the problem. We don’t want to know about it…probably for the same reason we don’t want to be part of a big brother program in the community or volunteer at the hospital or ask the family with the handicapped kid over for dinner. It’s inconvenient, it’s uncomfortable, it takes investment and follow up…etc.
…here Little Miss Sunshine enters into the equation. It’s a movie that shows a screwed up, “potty mouth” family coming to grips with who they are. Then, instead of prettying up who they are they celebrate their discovery. The reason I love the ending is that in about 5 minutes it tells the whole story of the movie in an allegory. I’m not going to argue that it doesn’t step over the line a little…but, I wouldn’t argue too much that it does, either. The reason why is that a naïve girl who has been taught an awful dance by her dirty grandfather is sort of what’s going on with us. It’s my belief that we’re made to be God-glorifiers…typically when we stumble into sinful actions in our life we do so naively…and, then we look as out of place as that girl did on stage. The comedy of the scene…the unusualness of seeing someone who isn’t pretending in that setting…the dark streak that goes through it all…there’s so many things going on all at once…this tension is what feels good and (for lack of a better word) “real” about the scene.
I think this brings us back to where I left off with my explaining-what’s-wrong-with-the-world paragraphs. Admitting the problem isn’t only part of the answer. Little Miss Sunshine ends with a celebration of the freedom of admitting your problems. If everyone went around admitting their problems all the time without doing anything about it, I think the digression may be exponential. But, I think part of the beauty of really expressing what’s wrong with you is that this release looks so ugly that we want to take care of it. Taking care of it appropriately is what Little Miss Sunshine is missing. Problems and ugliness appear too much like a yellow Volkswagen van that doesn’t run properly...if everyone pitches in together, then a community of people makes a bad situation not as bad and, in fact, the bonding experience of going down together is the beauty of it all.
…and, I think that’s all I have to say for the moment on Little Miss Sunshine. Be careful in the comment section, 3 comments and an Email might point toward more needless ramblings and run on sentences.
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