Napoleon Dynamite
(FOX Region 1 NTSC DVD)
(2004)
review by Head Cheeze

For anyone who has ever felt like an outsider at some point in their life, I give you Napoleon Dynamite; the delusionally arrogant, mouth-breathing, unicorn-drawing, all-around-repellent "hero" of director Jared Hess' magnificently bizarre film of the same name. As portrayed by John Heder, Napoleon not only personifies geek culture, he takes it to new and previously unheard of extremes.

Welcome to Preston, Idaho. It's a small, tightly knit community, made up of cattle ranchers, potato farmers, and the children who will one day grow up to be...well...cattle ranchers and potato farmers. Preston is also home to Napoleon Dynamite, a socially retarded young man who lives with his butch grandmother and fragile, internet obsessed older brother, Kip (Ruell) on his grandmother's Llama ranch. When Napoleon's grandmother injures herself in a dune buggy accident, the brothers' Uncle Rico (Gries) comes to take care of them, bringing along a moneymaking scheme (involving cheap plastic dishware and herbal breast augmentation) that soon becomes a thorn in Napoleon's already tender side. As tensions mount at home, Napoleon befriends Pedro, a new Mexican student with designs on being class President. At the same time, Napoleon begins to develop feelings for the cute-yet-equally maladjusted Deb, whose skills as a glamour photographer- as well as being an expert manufacturer of boondoggle key chains-prove invaluable to Pedro's campaign.

And, if you think you know where all of this is headed, you're right, but you're also so very, very wrong.

Napoleon Dynamite is one of the most refreshingly original films I've seen in quite some time. From its clever title sequence to its strangely compelling conclusion, Jared Hess' film completely skirts all of the rules of "teen comedy" and presents us with a thoroughly engrossing, rib-tickling character study with absolutely no moral payoff. Napoleon isn't just some unfortunate fat kid or bespectacled geek who gets picked on; he's a rude, whiny, loudmouthed jerk, oblivious to his shortcomings as a human being, and, seemingly, quite content with the way he is. His brother Kip is a frail, feminine lay-about who spends his days chatting on the internet to his "girlfriend" in Detroit, while Uncle Rico pines for the glory days, back when he was a local football star. Rico is so intent on getting back to those days that he uses the money he earns from selling his plastic dishware to purchase a "time machine" off of E-bay. These people's idiosyncrasies make Napoleon's seem rather benign by comparison, and he blames them for everything that goes wrong in his life. However, he learns nothing. There is no redemption, here. No one "wins the big game" or "gets the prom queen". The film simply runs its course and leaves Napoleon where he began. Sure, there's a bit toward the end that does come off as a bit of an underdog movie cliché, but it's the only moment in the film that embraces any sort of convention, so I was willing to overlook it.

The DVD from FOX Home Entertainment presents the film in both widescreen anamorphic and fullscreen transfers, and includes a commentary track, making-of featurette, the short film "Peluca" (which inspired Napoleon Dynamite), deleted scenes, and some short MTV promotional videos.

Napoleon Dynamite isn't a movie that will have you rolling in the aisles, as its humour is very subtle and restrained. It reminded me a lot of Wes Anderson's Rushmore in that way, but also of Daniel Clowes' magnificently creepy Eightball comic book series. This is a movie that is delightfully surreal, has a lot of heart, and is sure to either confound or thoroughly entertain. That last bit is up to you.