64Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

A dysfunctional-family comedy in which the Hoovers of Albuquerque hit the road to take 7-year-old Olive (Abigail Breslin) to a kid beauty pageant. The family unit exists on a continuum of American dreamers and non-conformists: a father who’s a motivational speaker, a brother who’s taken a vow of silence, a hedonistic grandfather, and a suicidal, Proustian-scholar uncle. Little Miss Sunshine took the Sundance Film Festival by storm and went on to become a commercial darling. Screenwriter Michael D. Arndt won the Oscar as well as the Writers Guild Award for Original Screenplay. The film, said the Los Angeles Times, “hilariously punctures the grotesque bubble of the competitive American spirit in which ‘winners’ are recognized by their rigorous ability to conform to the standards imposed by the market, and ‘losers’ include anyone who won't bow to its mighty will.”