Little Miss Sunshine

It's easy to see why this cracking black comedy, which takes a skewed view of the American dream, was a Sundance smash, reportedly selling for $10 million within two hours of screening. It follows a highly dysfunctional family on a cross-country road trip to the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant with their dumpy daughter. Along with irritating, motivational speaker dad (the excellent Kinnear) are a fraught mother (Colette), a gay uncle (Steve Carrell) and a heroin-snorting granddad (the superb Alan Arkin). The comedy is dark, awkward and painfully familiar, but always counterbalanced with just enough sentimentality to keep the unit moving. Faris and Dayton have moulded a comedy that shares Wes Anderson's acute satirical and observational ability without the emotional autism. [Colan Mehaffey]