Napoleon Dynamite Reviews
James Rocchi, Netflix
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
There is a kind of studied stupidity that sometimes passes as humor, and Jared Hess' "Napoleon Dynamite" pushes it as far as it can go. Its hero is the kind of nerd other nerds avoid, and the movie is about his steady progress toward complete social unacceptability. Even his victory toward the end, if it is a victory, comes at the cost of clowning before his fellow students.
We can laugh at comedies like this for two reasons: Because we feel superior to the characters, or because we pity or like them. I do not much like laughing down at people, which is why the comedies of Adam Sandler make me squirmy (most people, I know, laugh because they like him). In the case of Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder), I certainly don't like him, but then the movie makes no attempt to make him likable. Truth is, it doesn't even try to be a comedy. It tells his story and we are supposed to laugh because we find humor the movie pretends it doesn't know about read more...
A.O. Scott, New York Times
One of the overarching jokes in "Napoleon Dynamite," the odd, amusing debut of the 24-year-old filmmaker Jared Hess, is that such a grandiose, explosive title should be attached to such a small-scale, deadpan film. Napoleon Dynamite is also the name of the movie's awkward, frizzy-haired hero, a high school student in Preston, Idaho, whose world-conquering potential is invisible to everyone but him.
Napoleon, played by Jon Heder with unnerving conviction, is a gangly mouth-breather whose affectless eccentricity could easily be mistaken for simple-mindedness. "He's a tender little guy," says his Uncle Rico (Jon Gries), a sad, sleazy fellow who drives around in an orange-and-brown Dodge van selling plastic food-storage containers. This is about the kindest thing anyone says about Napoleon, who is taunted, harassed and laughed at in school. It is also the truest, though it may take you a while to appreciate Napoleon, and to grasp that the movie's attitude toward him is ultimately more tender than cruel. read more...
Ty Burr, Boston Globe
"Napoleon Dynamite" was the big buzz hit at the Sundance Film Festival in January, but, honestly, any movie that shows at midnight at 7,000 feet above sea level has already had much of its work done for it. Now that this shoestring oddity has descended to the lower altitudes, it can be seen for what it is: an inspired dead-end stunt that keeps delivering snarky laughs far longer than it has any right to. The film's attitude remains high, and it probably wouldn't hurt if the audience was too.
Directed by Brigham Young University film graduate Jared Hess and written with his wife, Jerusha, "Napoleon" suggests Todd Solondz's "Welcome to the Dollhouse" stuffed into the confines of an MTV interstitial skit. In segments so deadpan as to seem disconnected, the film sketches out the dire adolescent life of the title character (Jon Heder), a gangly Idaho Brillo-head whose nerdiness has achieved cosmic proportions. read more...
Jamie Gillies, Apollo Guide
In the grand independent film tradition of Welcome to the Dollhouse and Rushmore comes yet another film about misguided but lovable geeks in small-town America. This seems to be a trend among films at Sundance and American independent comedy dramas in general. Like The Station Agent, Lawn Dogs and other films, Napoleon Dynamite fits into the misfit sub genre. It’s nothing new (remember On the Waterfront?), but it seems the fastest way for young filmmakers to make a hit movie is to write a screenplay about small-town quirky people and sell it as middle-brow art to the cinema-going middle class in cities big enough to have art house theatres.
Napoleon Dynamite stars Jon Heder as a geek who makes every other geek on film look good. This guy is so uncoordinated, so despised by his classmates, and so downright unlovable, that it is hard to think they could have even made a film about him. But rather than being condescending to the small-town Idaho population, this film instead celebrates Napoleon as a freak, yes, but also a guy with a good heart. When Napoleon’s grandmother leaves him and his 31-year-old do-nothing brother Kip (Aaron Ruell) in the hands of his idiotic Uncle Rico (Jon Gries), he must deal with family squabbles, the school prom and an election. Enter the new student, and Napoleon’s only friend, Pedro (Efren Ramirez). Together with Pedro, whose ability to grow facial hair, have a kick ass bike and “score with chicks”, makes him a definite friend to have, Napoleon goes about fighting his battles, for freedom from his uncle and brother, and for acceptance at school. read more...