Napoleon Dynamite
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Movie Reviews of Napoleon Dynamite
Movie Review: Napoleon Dynamite ended the summer movie season with a bang!
Summary: 5 Stars
The summer movie season is gone and with it came the usual onslaught of action flicks, big-budget thrillers and even a few hilarious comedies. Matt Damon, Will Smith, Tom Cruise, Tobey Maguire and Will Ferrell all had big hits. However, in the midst of all the robots, amnesiac hit men, mustachioed newscasters and web slinging, a different kind of leading man set quite a unique landmark: Filmdom has a new reigning nerd, and his name is Napoleon Dynamite.
Newcomer Jon Heder stars as the protagonist in the title role of director Jared Hess' debut film about a tall, moon boot-wearing geek with thick glasses and a curly red hairdo trying to make it through his high school days in rural Idaho. He lives with his older brother Kip (Aaron Ruell), an equally clueless loser who spends his days chatting with babes on the Internet, and their grandmother, a four-wheeler enthusiast played by Sandy Martin.
After an accident in the sand dunes leaves granny with a broken coccyx, Napoleon and Kip's uncle Rico (Jon Gries) becomes their temporary caretaker. Uncle Rico assumes this responsibility the only way he knows how: by showing the boys boring videos of himself throwing footballs past the camera (his team almost won State in 1982) and recruiting Kip to help him sell plastic kitchenware and breast enlargement pills door-to-door.
In between receiving nonstop ridicule and alienation from his classmates, Napoleon spends most of his spare time touting his nunchaku skills, drawing flatulent fantasy creatures, feeding his pet llama Tina scraps of ham, sloppily chugging cranberry juice, testing out a time machine Kip bought online (complete with power crystals) and learning "flippin' sweet moves" from an ancient hip-hop dance tape he finds at a thrift store.
Rest assured, "Napoleon Dynamite" does have a plot, minimal as it may be. He befriends Mexican transfer student Pedro (Efren Ramirez) and manages his campaign to run for class president against the token popular girl Summer (played by Hillary Duff's sister, Haylie). There's even a love interest for Napoleon named Deb (Tina Majorino), a quirky girl who wears a ponytail on the side of her head and specializes in Glamour Shots photography and making cheap vinyl key chains.
You'll be too busy, however, watching Heder steal every single scene he's in while at the same time, destroying all the clichés of how characters like him are supposed to act. After all, any movie nerd can have a pocket protector and fawn over Gillian Anderson, but how many have ever stuffed tater tots in their pocket or tied fishing line to an action figure and dragged it from a moving school bus? Add to that Heder's throaty, deadpan delivery of lines like "Are you drinking 1 percent milk because you think you're fat?" and what you end up with is a new cinematic hero for the Star Trek-quoting, comic book-collecting masses.
Hess' directorial style and dialogue have drawn comparisons to both Wes Anderson's "Rushmore" and Todd Solondz's "Welcome to the Dollhouse." But his film has indie cred coming from almost every angle and just enough slapstick (including a hilarious cameo by Diedrich Bader as the instructor of his own brand of martial arts, Rex Kwon Do) to distance itself as an extremely original and entertaining movie.
If you want to see this hidden gem of a movie (and I highly recommend you do) you'd better hurry because it's likely to be knocked out of theaters soon by the slew of upcoming blockbusters that, most likely, won't contain any tater tots or llamas.
Movie Review: A quirky funny film that's dynamite
Summary: 5 Stars
How to describe Napoleon Dynamite, the movie? Funny, quirky, oddball, different, with a very low budget feel. And as for the title character?
Well, the movie describes the life of Napoleon, a geeky, awkward, depressed in a hangdog semi-conscious way, abrasive, bespectacled nerd type quiff of curly red hair who has a shuffling walk. He is quite the eccentric, riding on a schoolbus with the elementary school kids to his high school, and what he does to a superhero action figure shows how quirky he is. His current event presentation is delivered in a flat, bored kind of voice that gives a surreal quality in the class. He doesn't fit in or try to fit in, which makes him a locker-slamming target for the bemuscled bully Don and the shallow popularity cheerleader types such as the vacuous blonde Summer, nauseatingly played by Haylie Duff, and her friend Trisha. But his main talent is drawing, and in an unconventional way, whether it be his favourite animal, the liger (a cross between a lion and tiger), or a cariacature of Trisha.
He lives at his grandmother's in Preston, Idaho with his brother Kip, who spends most of his time chatting with an online girlfriend. Things change when his grandmother's laid out in a dune buggy accident. In comes his Uncle Rico to look after them. Rico is a fortyish former jock who has entered a cul-de-sac in 1982 all because he never got the chance to be national football star due to the coach not putting him out on a crucial game. He is quite a wheeler dealer of a salesman, selling durable Tupperware sets in aid of trying to get a time machine(!), and he brings in the meek Kip on his scheme. But he also likes making fun of Napoleon, whether it be throwing beef steaks at him or making his already difficult life at high school harder.
Napoleon though makes two friends. One is Pedro, a newcomer who has moved with his family from Mexico. Pedro speaks little and shares the same alienation and flat tone as Napoleon, but he thinks there are possibilities. For one, he has the courage to ask out Summer for the school dance, and later, to run for college president against Summer and her elite clique.
The other is Deb, a pleasant but not gorgeous teen not in the popular set whom Napoleon meets when she tries to sell him homemade keychains to help her raise money for modeling school. She has her own little studio where she does ID shots against gaudy pink or purple background and at one point, has a toupee that one of the character needs desperately-no, it's not Uncle Rico.
Apart from Deb, she with the sideways ponytail, there's one other genuinely nice character and that's LaFawnduh, Kip's girlfriend, who comes over for a visit, and she's quite sensuous. Despite having little screen time, she helps out this movie, even helping out Napoleon in one sequence.
This is quite the oddity, given the funny opening sequence involving different floor or carpets, and different foods that spell out the credits, with the White Stripes' "We Are Going To Be Friends" playing over it. There have been many movies of nerds or underdogs struggling, going up against bullies and the shallow and popular set (Revenge of the Nerds, Welcome To The Dollhouse) and Napoleon Dynamite works with its low key indie feel in having a hero who may have some shortcomings (his being abrasive or not too emotionally connected with people) but who in the end is someone to root for. And when is someone going to feed Tina the llama something good?
Movie Review: Napoleon Dynamite is Sweet!
Summary: 5 Stars
Napoleon Dynamite has been recently released on DVD. The small, independent film has become one with a lot of fans. Buttons declaring, "I love tater tots" and "Vote for Pedro" are sold in popular stores. T-shirts identical to those worn by cast members are sold at many online websites.
Why has the nation fallen in love with Napoleon Dynamite? For one thing, the characters are incredibly memorable. Napoleon is a classic outcast who walks around with his eyes half closed and his mouth half open saying random things like, "I caught you a delicious bass" and playing tether ball by himself. His brother Kip, a thirty two year old man with braces, chats online all day with "babes" and meets the love of his life, a black woman named Lafawnduh who teaches him how men behave in Detroit where she lives. The Dynamite brothers are forced to be babysat by their uncle Rico when their grandmother is injured in a dirt bike accident. Rico wishes he lived in the 1980s although much of the movie seems to be set then anyway. Napoleon's friend Pedro, a new kid at school, decides to run for class president. Deb, a shy girl, takes glamour shots and sells boondoggle key chains to raise money for college. Each of the outcast characters has their own unique personality traits that make the movie funny and interesting.
The pacing of the film is slow at times and after viewing it the first time, you might be thinking, "What just happened?" Think about the jokes, think about the characters, and you'll be laughing for sure.
Many of the scenes in the film are random. When the film starts, viewers see Napoleon embarking on a children's school bus and tossing an action figure attached to a string out the window. The scene ends and is never made reference to again.
That last scene at the end of the credits is a welcome addition to the film.
The deleted scenes are pretty good too. The best one is where they kids are playing kickball in gym class.
Much of the movie seems to take place in the 1980s although it is not. Deb wears her hair in a side ponytail in several scenes. The school dance features Cindi Lauper's "Time After Time" and puffy sleeved dresses. However, more modern things tell that the town is only partially in a timewarp. The Backstreet Boys' "Larger Than Life" is played at the end of the film. The confusion over the time period adds to the subtle humor of the film.
Most of the humor is found in Napoleon's own mind. He believes that girls only like guys with skills so he wants to learn how to use nun chucks and hack into computers. He also tells stories about "ligers," his favorite animals which are bred from a lion and a tiger for their magical powers. One of his most common utterances when asked what he is going to do is, "Whatever I feel like I want to do, gosh!"
Some of the film seems cliché like the popular girls that are mean to Napoleon and Pedro and some of the jokes but these things are downplayed and take a backseat to the scenes between the outcast characters.
The full effect of the film can only be experienced when one sees the way the actors deliver their lines and maintain their characters. Overall, it is an excellent comedy and a nice change of pace from the standard formula we are used to.
Movie Review: Are you guys having a killer time?
Summary: 5 Stars
Napoleon Dynamite
-Pretty good with a bow-staff.
-Artist - just one of his skills.
-Wears moon boots at all time.
-Loves tater tots to the point that he will put reserves of them in his pocket, unwrapped, for nutritional fuel as he may later need it during class.
-Learns and perfectly executes killer dance moves to ultimately become one hell of an interpretive dancer.
-Does whatever he feels like doing, gosh.
Kip: Napoleon's Brother
-32 years of age, currently living at home with his grandmother.
-Talks to babes on the internet all day (grandma pays the hourly fees for his chatting).
-Training to be a cage-fighter.
-Becomes TO'd when you hold out on him with the full-body shot.
-Finds his soulmate, Lafawnda, on the internet, falls deeply in love and gets married. Kip writes a deep and beautiful song that he performs at the wedding ceremony.
Uncle Rico: Napoleon's Uncle
-Stuck in 1982, with delusions of grandeur about the pro football career that he believes could have been.
-Almost-sidearm, ultra fast, slightly feminine throwing style. Uncle Rico videotapes himself dropping back and passing into a field of what may be described as unfulfilled promise and potential.
-Lives in a van.
-Becomes a tupperware salesman.
Pedro: Napoleon's new best friend at school
-Is the only kid in class with a full moustache.
-Not much of a speaker.
-Doesn't smile much.
-Rides a sweet Sledgehammer bicycle on which he can get like 3 feet of air.
-Builds cakes as ice breakers for girls he wants to get to know. He's good with the ladies.
-Cuts off all his hair one day when he realizes that it is what is making him hot.
-Runs for class president. The platform: Vote for Pedro and all of your wildest dreams will come true.
Deb: Napoleon's friend and female interest
-Her mom goes to college.
-Heads the "Portraits by Deb" photography company.
-Drinks 2% milk cuz she thinks she's fat, although she could drink whole milk.
This movie contains an unreal number of quotable lines, all delivered with deadpan styling.
The film basically chronicles a short period in Napoleon's life during which he meets a new best friend whom he helps during a class-presidential running. During this same period, he meets a shy girl from school that he becomes close to and develops an interest in. His brother, Kip, meets a woman online that he believes is his soulmate. He gets married. Napoleon's Uncle Rico steps in to keep an eye on things when his grandmother is injured in an ATV accident at the sand dunes. Uncle Rico and Kip begin selling tupperware to make some sweet moolah.
The storyline is obviously not what engages you. It is the characters and their means of interaction. These interactions are unique and interesting, spurring some of the funniest ideas and lines of dialogue I have heard. It takes a certain sense of humor to appreciate this film. Most parents won't "get it", but there is no denying Napoleon Dynamite.
This is an independent movie phenomenon! I highly recommend it.
Movie Review: The movie you have to see three times...
Summary: 5 Stars
It is official. I have watched Napoleon Dynamite. I put it off as long as I could because I was afraid. Yes, afraid. I didn't want to know if I was the kind of person who likes Napoleon Dynamite.
When this film debuted, some of my closest friends told me it was an amazing film, hilarious, and even quite possibly the best movie ever. These are good friends, whose opinions I trust. They have recommended good movies to me before, and I have been content and enthralled with their suggestions.
However, there was a contingent group who hated it. These are good friends, whose opinions I trust. They have recommended good movies to me before, and I have been content and enthralled with their suggestions. Their loathing was only matched by the previous group's love for it.
Napoleon yin to Dynamite yang.
The media said this. Professional movie reviewers said this. Complete strangers I harassed on the bus said this. Just kidding, I don't ride the bus. But complete strangers did come to the same conclusions about this film.
Napoleon Dynamite is either the best or the worst film ever made.
Suddenly, the world is thrown into sharp contrast. There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who love it and those who hate it. I didn't want to know what kind of person I was, if I was a lover or a hater. What would it say about who I am and the structure of my personality and my taste in films and comedy? Which ever would I be? Let the spinning of the Tao commence!
I've now seen it three times. Upon the first viewing, I kept waiting for the punch line. I kept waiting to laugh. It felt like it was a constant set-up with no payoff. (However, the introductory credits were clever and exciting.) It left me feeling blah.
Upon the second viewing, for some reason, I started to giggle more. I paid more attention to the details. I submitted myself to that world. Napoleon's whiny GHAWD seemed less grating. Pedro was suddenly hilarious. And damn, I want that suit.
By the third viewing, I think I figured it out. It's not a constant set up and no punch lines. It's all punch line. That's why it's one of the most quoted movies right now. Every phrase is a one-liner with a subtle punch. I bet the French love that movie. The background, the sets and clothes, the top-loading VCRs, the god-almighty moon boots, the ambiance is the set up for this film. At first I balked over the seeming lack of plot, but the more I've seen it, the less it matters. The wedding is the best part. "Sorry I'm late. I just got done taming a wild honeymoon stallion for you guys." Salvador Dali would be proud.
So, what can I say, I liked it. Eventually. It grew on me like an overzealous mole. Like a chia pet. Like bacteria on a forming brick of bleu cheese. The only problem now is that I have a nine-year-old running around occasionally belting out an exasperated whine of, "I told you! I spent the summer with my uncle in Alaska hunting wolverines!"
This concludes another edition of Jeremy's Movie Review. I hereby award this movie with 11 pink armadillos, a liger, and a catastrophic plot device.