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I caught Little Miss Sunshine yesterday. This movie sideswiped me like the run-down yellow hippie bus the family has to push-start every time. I laughed harder and felt more genuine emotion than I thought I ever would. Steve Carell’s depressive Proust scholar and Greg Kinnear’s “second place is first loser” motivational speaker are hilarious, each committed staunchly to his own worldview, and detached from reality in his own way. Abigail Breslin, last seen in Signs, plays Olive, a young girl determined to be a beauty queen. When she makes it into California’s Little Miss Sunshine pageant, the entire family—outspoken, rough-edged grandpa and vow of silence teen brother, included—pile into a VW for the 700-mile road trip.

This movie will definitely appeal to fans of quirky new wave comedies like I Heart Huckabees and The Life Aquatic, but it does emphasize substance and breeze over heavy-handed style, and it’s message of hope and family fidelity should resonate more with larger audiences.

One of the trailers shown before Little Miss Sunshine was for Running With Scissors, another child-like fable of a twisted family told in a similar style as all of the above. If anyone has a decent name for this light drama, cartoonish genre that includes the work of David O. Russell, Wes and P.T. Anderson, Michel Gondry, Todd Solondz, etc., leave some feedback and help a brother out.

For Fight Club Fans: Author Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Choke is on its way to becoming a movie. This is no surprise. Choke is a solid book, but has been roundly criticized as a retread of Fight Club. But, go figure, Hollywood loves retreads.

Out this week in theatres is the Neil LaBute remake of The Wickerman. LaBaute, to me, is a little like his Wickerman star, Nic Cage, a lot of potential, but few results of late. Still, the trailer looks sufficiently creepy, so it may satisfy if you feel like a frightening weekend.

The Sentinel debuts on DVD this week. It may look like a quick cash-in of Keifer Sutherland’s brooding Jack Bauer super-agent shtick, but what’s wrong with that? Sutherland won an Emmy on Sunday for his 24 role, and if you’re not a fan of the action-packed over-dramatic nail-biter, you should be. The new season doesn’t start until January, but all the past seasons are on DVD.

And finally, I tend to think Johnny Depp would be perfect casting for just about ANY role. The guy is that good. But phony JonBenet killer/psycho attention whore John Mark Karr wants Depp to play him in a movie about his “life.” You can’t make this stuff up. All you can do is read the strange truth at The Smoking Gun.