Little Miss Sunshine
How can a movie called Little Miss Sunshine not be about depressed suicidal people in a dysfunctional family?
As dark as that sounds though this is a film dedicated to the silver linings of every bad situation. I’d call it the Napoleon Dynamite of 2006, except that Little Miss Sunshine is a far superior movie. Far from being bleak, this road trip movie finds laughter in all the strangest places, sympathetic laughter…and so effortlessly too. Probably a better comparison is Bottle Rocket.
The music consisted of mostly indie rock largely from DeVotchKa. Mychael Danna is credited with the score, but what you remember are the songs. The Morricone-like whistling that begins DeVotchKa’s “Til the End of Time” or the vibraphones that signal the beginning of Sufjian Stevens’ “Chicago.” Danna, who collaborated with DeVotchKa, expands on the sounds of those songs with purely instrumental counterparts that give the movie a very vibrant sense of pacing.
If I haven’t said it before (at least on this blog), Mychael Danna is the man! The guy has already written at least three great film scores (The Ice Storm, Vanity Fair, and Monsoon Wedding) and who knew he could hang with indie songmeisters.
The Winner Is… (mp3) Mychael Danna and DeVotchKa
First Push (mp3) Mychael Danna and DeVotchKa
September 4th, 2006 at 6:24 pm
With all respect to M.Danna, a closer look at the score will show you that nearly the entirety of it is based and pulled directly from songs the band Devotchka wrote and released on the record How it ends. From what I understand Danna helped with some re-arrangements to already written Devotchka songs to fit the scenes. I think this score will more appropriately be looked at in hindsight as an introduction to devotchka in film rather than another notch in the superbly talented Danna’s belt.
September 5th, 2006 at 12:40 am
Thanks for the info.
I didn’t mean to imply Danna wrote songs for Devotchka (even though it is his name as scoring credits). I said he expanded on them…and as a fan, I really just admire him for being able to work with such diverse artists.
October 22nd, 2006 at 11:55 pm
hey dude, thanks for the songs. I live in brazil and just watched the movie. it’s hella awesome……. great stuff indeed.
C U
October 22nd, 2006 at 11:57 pm
One more question…..do you know any webpage where i could get the songs of the movie from??? Thanks again.
C out.