Thursday, November 03, 2005

Napoleon Dynamite

Our daughter suggested that Judy and I might like this movie, and, sure enough, we did. It's a strange one, a little slow and virtually plotless. Mostly it's just an observation of the lives of some geeky guys and a gal. Napoleon is a high school student who lives with his grandmother and his brother Kip (in his 30s and addicted to computer chat rooms). When the grandmother has a dirtbike accident, Uncle Rico moves in. Rico believes that his life was ruined in 1982 when the coach didn't put him into the big game as the quarterback. He buys a time machine on eBay so he can return to the '80s and change history (and his life). Napoleon finds a friend in Pedro, who runs for class president, his main qualification being that he's the only kid in the school with a moustache.

I don't want to say more about what happens to the various characters because that would spoil the surprises and the fun. Mostly the movie's a series of vignettes, some of them very funny, but be warned: some people really, really hate it. Roger Ebert, for one. Maybe you have to be a little weird to appreciate it. If you do watch, though, be sure to sit through the end credits. There's a five-minute scene tacked on, and it's very funny, too.

2 comments:

Vince said...

Napoleon caught me completely off-guard too, Bill. I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first, and now I've watched it several times. It captures a certain feeling about high school that I haven't seen in any other movie.

Napoleon merchandise is hugely popular among schoolkids now, a fact that gives me a great deal of hope.

mtmorgan said...

Napoleon Dynamite is fantastic. And quite unlike anything else I've seen. The dude who plays Napoleon is perfect. Hard to believe he exists as someone else.