The best films of 2006 so far...

Here are the good ones, worth the trip to the theater or DVD store or Netflix queue should the release date permit:

Little Miss Sunshine: The film to beat in 2006. It's got the greatest opening shot and the best ending scene since 2004's Napoleon Dynamite.

Brick: Rian Johnson's dark and gritty little indie-film-noir-flick starring Joseph-Gordon Levitt (who's on a role with movies and chilling/committed performances) trying to piece a dead-girlfriend-drug puzzle together with the help of his screwed up high school peers.

Bubble: Steven Soderburgh produced this ultra-low budget, reality film (meaning, it's as close to real life as you could get) about a trio of bored factory workers who find themselves mixed up in a murder in a small town and its almost creepy the way it feels like this could happen to anyone. Best scene in the film: the prison conversation. The staging of this scene, the set design, the direction...all of it, pitch-perfect.

World Trade Center: I know this is supposed to be an inspiring film---and it is, don't get me wrong---but I didn't know some things about this story and about the number of survivors who actually survived from after the rubble and it actually depressed me more than it inspired me. But even still, it reminded me of the power of hope---especially when this hope is being liften up with the words of another.

John Tucker Must DieOkay, maybe "best" doesn't apply here at all but nevertheless, this movie is almost exactly what it's trying to be: a teen comedy with a little bite and a little revenge/sassy/sweetness in a summer filled with movies made to blow you up. The first half hour of this film, unlaughable, but as the movie goes along, three characters make this high school romp worth the trip to the end (even though we all know how it's going to end). And although the moral of the story is preachy, it's oddly encouraging to be reminded from a movie as shallow this, the value of telling the truth. Too bad John Tucker never learned this. But then again, something is not exactly right with the screenplay or direction when the character your supposed to hate actually ends up being the most interesting, most engaging, most charming, most endearing and most likeable one of them all. Maybe "WICKED" was right: it's all about pop-u-lar. (Come to think of it, maybe this movie has no plae being on my list at all. But I guess if I had to include a stupid summer movie you thought would be god-awful but wasn't, this would be the one) It's a far far cry from MEAN GIRLS though. Let's be clear on that for sure.

Am I missing some here? Is that all? :/