For a lot of people, Napoleon Dynamite is a movie that they first learn about through its assortment of memes and in-jokes: "Vote for Pedro", "Ligers are bred for their skills in magic," "GOSH!", and so forth. And, if curiosity gets the best of them, they'll sit down and actually watch the movie just to see what all the fuss is about. What they'll actually find depends on who they are, as Napoleon Dynamite is less of a conventional movie and more of a Rorschach test for the viewer.
On a surface level, this movie is an odd blend of Bile Fascination and Slice of Life, tied together with a Random Events Plot. It almost feels like a documentary, following Napoleon and his social circle as they go about their lives. By conventional narrative norms, Napoleon and his peers are not particularly appealing or attractive, but that's because they don't need to be — this is who they are, and you're just a passerby observing them in their natural habitat. The very dry humor thus comes from the spectacle of watching these people, and how the mundanity of their everyday lives come across as bizarre to the audience.
And yet, beneath its unfocused exterior and seemingly pointless so-called plot, Napoleon Dynamite does have a point: that being true to yourself is good enough. Napoleon is uncharismatic and a little (okay, a lot) coarse, but he is loyal to his friends and selflessly gives of himself for them. His unwavering sense of self keeps him going, and the people he know benefit from his presence. Similarly, his brother Kip may be an awkward recluse living his life in cyberspace, yet he finds true love by (again) being honest about himself with LaFawnduh. These folks are quirky, sure, but they're also good-hearted at their core, and in the end you're happy for their happiness.
Napoleon Dynamite is not a feel-good movie as much as a feel-whatever-you-want-to-feel movie, a quasi-documentary about an odd group of people in a quiet town in rural Idaho. When it ends, not everything is tied up in neat narrative bows, but you feel confident that whatever happens to these folks will work itself out.
A documentarian look into a quirky corner of Idaho
For a lot of people, Napoleon Dynamite is a movie that they first learn about through its assortment of memes and in-jokes: "Vote for Pedro", "Ligers are bred for their skills in magic," "GOSH!", and so forth. And, if curiosity gets the best of them, they'll sit down and actually watch the movie just to see what all the fuss is about. What they'll actually find depends on who they are, as Napoleon Dynamite is less of a conventional movie and more of a Rorschach test for the viewer.
On a surface level, this movie is an odd blend of Bile Fascination and Slice of Life, tied together with a Random Events Plot. It almost feels like a documentary, following Napoleon and his social circle as they go about their lives. By conventional narrative norms, Napoleon and his peers are not particularly appealing or attractive, but that's because they don't need to be — this is who they are, and you're just a passerby observing them in their natural habitat. The very dry humor thus comes from the spectacle of watching these people, and how the mundanity of their everyday lives come across as bizarre to the audience.
And yet, beneath its unfocused exterior and seemingly pointless so-called plot, Napoleon Dynamite does have a point: that being true to yourself is good enough. Napoleon is uncharismatic and a little (okay, a lot) coarse, but he is loyal to his friends and selflessly gives of himself for them. His unwavering sense of self keeps him going, and the people he know benefit from his presence. Similarly, his brother Kip may be an awkward recluse living his life in cyberspace, yet he finds true love by (again) being honest about himself with LaFawnduh. These folks are quirky, sure, but they're also good-hearted at their core, and in the end you're happy for their happiness.
Napoleon Dynamite is not a feel-good movie as much as a feel-whatever-you-want-to-feel movie, a quasi-documentary about an odd group of people in a quiet town in rural Idaho. When it ends, not everything is tied up in neat narrative bows, but you feel confident that whatever happens to these folks will work itself out.