Little Miss Sunshine Goes to Hooters

Back in California a month or so ago, the American film ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ was all the rage and just about everyone I spoke with, including my trusted Cinephile friends, had nothing but praise for it. So when Pequeña Miss Sunshine showed up here in English with Spanish subtitles, like most foreign films that are shown here in Buenos Aires, I had to go. (Ironically, going to the movies is something I really love but have made virtually no time for here in BA and this may be only the third film I’ve seen in an actual cinema in almost a YEAR)!

Not the greatest film in the world, BUT… extremely well done and very, very funny indeed. So damn funny that I had to go back the next night with some other friends and maybe it was even funnier this time than the first, watching them set up all the scenes and inside jokes within scenes. Deep within a very simple film about a dysfunctional and truly American family; eating giant paper buckets of fried chicken while dealing with life’s hopes and failures, constantly learning about winners and losers from Greg Kinnear, who was pretty damn good actually as the father, ‘Richard’, there is this only-Americans-can-appreciate sense of dark black humor that comes bursting out from the screen into our own very real lives, trashing on every stereotype and Yanki obsession that our televisually-stained culture has picture-perfectly painted for us, sending this viewer for one, howling into fits of uncontrollable laughter along with my American comrades, together laughing to the point of uncontrollable tears, louder than any of the porteños, themselves laughing as well, just not quite as enthusiastically as us.

Afterwards, at midnight, on a Sunday, we stroll down kitchy Puerto Madero’s sort of made-for-strolling walkway. (1) Although not super hungry at this point, especially after whatever ‘super combo’ the concession stands sold us but feeling the need to maybe chat about the film or just enjoy the nighttime air amongst friends, the age old questions rears its ugly head – what to do, where to eat? I’ll spare you all the cheesy and sticky details but needless to say, we had to skip the first place with open outdoor seating - TGI Friday’s – and instead, settled on Hooters!
1 - Puerto Madero is a still-up-and-coming-but-doing-it-very-well-now-after-15-years neighborhood, where expensive eateries and five-star hotels crowd over a stretch of the river made for upscale porteños and tourists alike, including BA’s floating riverboat casino and the Ecological Reserve; a giant spread of nature, made for man and nature – in the middle of the city – with folks from all walks of life coming together, mainly on the weekends in what is an excellent way to spend one's day. Watching nature, mostly birdlife (there are over 400 different species of birds that can be seen thorough binoculars while traversing the reserve) with our families, friends or lovers. One of the best ways to cruise the neighborhood and reserve is on a bicycle that can be rented from La Bicicleta Naranja | The Orange Bicycle, just down the street from me here in San Telmo.