According to the “Refuse to Lose” nine-step program unveiled in Little Miss Sunshine, there are two kinds of people in this world: winners and losers. Unfortunately for the Hoover clan, they’re made up almost entirely of the latter.

Dad (Greg Kinnear) is a failed motivational speaker who came up with the program. Grandpa (Alan Arkin) is a heroin addict. Mom (Toni Collete) is too stressed to cook and resorts to ordering fried chicken for dinner daily. Her brother Frank (Steve Carell) is a depressed Proust scholar who unsuccessfully attempted suicide. The kid (Paul Dano) scribbles “I hate everyone” on a notepad after taking a vow of silence.

We meet the Hoovers for the first time at their dinner table where they’re having chicken for the umpteenth time that week. Frank, freshly dumped by his job and a girl he loved, is forced to stay with them after his failed suicide.

The scene is fraught with cross talking between the clashing personalities of victory-obsessed Richard (Kinnear), foul-mouthed Grandpa, and Frank. But all of it halts when 9-year-old Olive (Abigail Breslin) receives news from the answering machine that she is now competing at the finals of the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. A little family road trip ensues.

The film, directed by husband and wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, is an outlandishly dark satire that borders on screwball and slapstick. But its reliance on a perfect cast and a sharp script by Matt Arndt consistently provides laughs, accomplishing what too many other one-dimensional summer comedies could not. Carell, coming off from his role as the 40-year-old virgin, stands out as the heartbroken scholar whose pained facial expressions reign unmatched. Kinnear and Collete enjoy strong chemistry atop the combative hierarchy of the household, while Breslin, the creepy little girl from Signs, shines through as chubby Olive.

Arndt’s script scores by carving an eccentric group of characters. The jokes feel natural and effortless, poking fun at a middle-America family seeking vicarious victory in a pre-pubescent beauty pageant.

The yellow, malfunctioning VW bus they use provides a perfect metaphor for the sputtering fam. Their trip is punctuated with a series of troubles, including one scene involving the yellow van’s horn getting stuck as they drive down a California highway.

Their misadventures lead to a satisfying payoff at the pageant. Olive looks awkward surrounded by skinny Jon Benet wannabes with their big hair and enough make-up to earn the stare of pageant emcee (Matt Winston) as he sings “God Bless America.”

In terms of originality, the movie treads in the shadow of some road trip comedies, but it recalibrates the rankings. Its natural cinematic style and clever dialogue make the movie feel like a breath of fresh air conditioning.

But at the heart of this film are the dark jokes wrought from a deeply flawed family whose interactions in the latter part of the film provide the impetus to embrace their outwardly unlikable characters. Shattered dreams, death, suicide, teen angst, bankruptcy, drugs and heartbreak fill their journey—and make this film a winner.

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE HHH½

Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. • Starring Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin, Toni Collette and Steve Carell. • R, 101 min. • At the Osio Cinemas.