The first time I saw the trailer for Sunshine Cleaning, I thought exactly what I was supposed to think: this looks like a fun, refreshing indie comedy like Little Miss Sunshine. It has Alan Arkin, other 
impressive cast members (noteably Amy Adams), a van, a catchy song (by The Decemberists, and not in the actual film) and the word “Sunshine” to boot. Sign me up! To that end, producers Peter Saraf and Marc Turtletau (who also produced Little Miss) had accomplished their marketing goal. And while eventually watching the film was time well spent, Sunshine Cleaning certainly didn’t hit the mark of being a new take on comedy or unexpectedly poignant like Little Miss Sunshine. It was a marketing move destined to disappoint.
Unfair comparisons aside, though, there is a lot to admire in Sunshine Cleaning. There are moments where the filmmakers are working too hard to make good material for that trailer, but in between them are some really great human moments. For instance, Adam’s Rose Lorkowski has a pretty compelling, not overworked relationship to her precocious and impressionable son, Oscar (great name). But no one is going to believe that he is going to be expelled from his public school because of excessive licking. Similarly, screenwriter Megan Holley has created a subtle, believable, and still magnetic character in Winston, the owner of a cleaning supply store (excellently realized by Clifton Collins Jr.), and yet Arkin’s schemer dad character exists in a different kind of film. Adams and Emily Blunt’s sisters fall somewhere in between, playing out an emotional subplot involving their dead mother. For it’s ambition to say something about life, death, and the messiness of our corporeal existence, Sunshine Cleaning brings more to the table than the mattress gag in it’s trailer would seem to suggest. It is unfortunate, then, that the film seems to be pulled between competing interests and never settles into a coherent identity.
Here are this morning’s Oscar-nominated films, alphabetically. The nominees for foreign language film and documentary feature are compiled at the end of the list. (Short format nominees are listed in a 
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