Little Miss Sunshine--WTF?

I finally watched "Little Miss Sunshine" the other night.

I don't get it. What on earth was the big deal? It was a marginally entertaining film. There were some good moments. Steve Carrell and Greg Kinnear were particularly solid. It's not a bad film.

But the idea that this movie should have even been in the conversation for best picture of the year is flabbergasting. Why? The road movie thing is old hat and LMS adds nothing to the genre. The teenage boy made absolutely no sense at all--kids like that don't want to go into the military. The grandfather was ridiculously zany and his character also was deeply underdeveloped--Oh Grandpa, he just loves his heroin. What??? And a satire of the child beauty pageant thing--wow, how cutting edge....

So what am I missing here? Or is this the 2006 version of "Shine," which charmed people when they saw it and was absolutely forgotten about 6 months later, for good reason.