I've seen all of the feature films Linklater has made so far. The School of Rock certainly has its fans but it's perhaps one of his lesser efforts, and the same could be said for Fast Food Nation. The latter suffered from clichd elements (especially in the illegal Mexicans thread) and a few of the characters served as nothing more than mouthpieces, but I thought it also had a genuinely intriguing "central" figure in Greg Kinnear's Don Anderson, whose ordinariness was extraordinary. As long as he was in the picture, the film worked.

I agree with your friends that Linklater is a great filmmaker, one of the best in the U.S. today. Yes, I hope you get the opportunity to check out the films you've listed. I'd also add Tape and Before Sunset. I have learned that A Scanner Darkly is now available on DVD in Germany. I think you'll like it; hopefully, you'll also be able to see my reasoning for mentioning it earlier.

I agree with you regarding Bug's marketing and distribution schemes. The same was true in N. America. But, as promised, Lionsgate did open this $4 million production wide (1661 theaters), a good move for a film released during the summer. Another independent distributor would've perhaps started on a smaller scale and allowed it to build, but that's always risky. I was pleasantly surprised that a film primarily made for a small, sophisticated audience generally received good reviews in the U.S. French critics from such publications as Positif, Les Inrockuptibles and, of course, Cahiers du cinma appreciated it even more.