Napoleon Dynamite Review
by Ryan Ellis (flickershows AT hotmail DOT com)January 7th, 2005
Napoleon Dynamite
a DVD review by Ryan Ellis
January 6, 2005
My Tagline---Napoleon doesn't care, so why should you?
All throughout 'Napoleon Dynamite', I kept waiting for the other funny shoe to drop. After all, this little quirk-job of a movie has a reputation that precedes it. It seems that if you want to be hip, you have to see this movie. Since I'm not hip in the slightest, I waited for the DVD release. That was probably the right move. Five bucks for a rental is enough money to spend on this one. Just don't tell that to the legions of fans who adore this picture. Napoleon speaks to a lot of people. That's odd, though, because you'd have to be nearly sociopathic to truly relate to this guy.
Maybe the thinking is this---he's so uncool, he's come all the way back around and BECOME cool.
The title character is a lone wolf nerd type...and he was apparently named after an Elvis Costello album. He's not like most geeks of the cinema who've come before. He isn't misunderstood. He isn't brilliant. He's not a hero. In fact, he's a real drip. So this isn't John Hughes territory or even 'Ghost World'. The kids in those movies (particularly 'Ghost World') had an ironic detachment too. Napoleon, however, isn't very sympathetic and his movie---while bust-a-gut funny once or twice---never takes off. He just goes about his day in a sour mood, some weird things happen, and then the movie ends. It's interesting for the most part, but it's a bit of a bummer that the pic never hits any high notes.
And yet the movie is a whopping success! Co-writer/director Jared Hess and his team had a budget of 400 thou for 'Napoleon Dynamite' and it's made over 40 MILLION. Sweet. The not-too-sweet Jon Heder plays Napoleon Dynamite. He's got the talentless geek gimmick down pat. If the movie works at all (and it often does), the credit goes to Heder, who doesn't resort to any "love me even though I'm weird" mugging. Nonetheless, it's tough to feel sorry for him when he's being bullied because he almost asks for it. Napoleon is not the nice boy next door. And like many high schoolers, he seems to hate his life. But, then again, he somehow manages to eek out a happy ending.
With only a few friends, a weirdo brother, and a jerk of an uncle to invade his humdrum life, Napoleon experiences the worst high school tortures and we get to watch him suffer. Napoleon enlists Pedro (Efren Ramirez) to compete with a pretty, popular, snobby blonde (Haylie Duff) for student president. Pedro is the new Hispanic kid at their WASP-infested northwestern U.S. school. That's about the only ambition our slacker "hero" has. Sure, he wants to date Deb (Tina Majorino), but they're better off as friends. In a strange turn of events, she goes to the prom with Pedro instead of Napoleon. Not even THAT gets much of a rise out of young Mister Dynamite.
Plus, there's a testy llama, an Internet relationship that actually turns into bona fide l'amour, and lots of griping. Napoleon is never accepted by his classmates---and doesn't seem to care to---until The Dance. I'll say no more about that, except that it's goofy good fun. See the movie for that payoff, if nothing else. Oh, I can't forget to praise the soundtrack and the opening credits. It's a pet peeve of mine that most modern movies can't be bothered to do anything new & interesting with credits. This one does. The flick doesn't live up to the groovy intro, but at least it HAS that groovy intro.
So why don't I insist that you fork over your buckaroos for a DVD rental? Maybe I just didn't feel involved enough to care. If only there were more reasons to laugh, either with Napoleon or at him. His memorable moments are certainly few & far between. Since high school is still a being mined for great movie material, there was potential for this movie to rank up there with some of the best of the adolescent comedies. Too bad. But then again, Napoleon Dynamite is not the kind of guy who would give a shit if people liked 'Napoleon Dynamite' anyway.
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