Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

First off, thank you Joshua Noonan for the request! Now, onto the review. I saw Napoleon Dynamite (2004) years and years ago for the first time and I've seen it many times since. Released in 2004 on a low budget of less than half a million dollars. Directed by Jared Hess and starring Jon Heder, Efren Ramirez, Tina Majorino, Aaron Ruell, and Jon Gries, the film is stupid, plotless, pointless, absurd, and nonsensical...yet still great! What makes it so great? I don't know, it just is. There's just so much to appreciate about the film!

The film opens with a remarkably unique opening sequence that you can only appreciate after watching a second time (or if you pay close enough attention). Different types of food is put out, with the actors' names spelled out over the food. Each food is relevant to the actor's character. The film then begins. Napoleon Dynamite (Heder), a socially awkward, lying, grumpy teenager, whose appearance fits the stereotypical look for a nerd: curly hair, glasses, and a mouth that never closes, waits for the bus. He gets on and immediately walks to the backseat and sits down. His aloof demeanor is immediately shown when a young boy asks what he will do today. He responds with, "Whatever I feel like I want to do, gosh!" This is when the absurdness starts. Napoleon takes out a wrestler action figure from his binder with a LOT of string wrapped around its waist. When the bus driver isn't looking, he throws the wrestler out the window and holds onto the string, letting the wrestler be dragged by the bus. And I thought my bus was weird when I was a kid...

This is where I should mention how kid friendly the film is. There are no real swears in this film. God is gosh, damn is dang, and so on. They have words like "retarded" and "crap", but nothing super serious. The worst swears in this stop being swears when you get older. I recently learned that the town the film was shot in, Preston, Idaho, is a very predominately Mormon area, which likely explains the lack of swearing. I really admire the attention to detail in this case.

Napoleon goes through his day doing random things. When asked about his current event, he makes up a story about Nessie and being saved by wizards. Later on, after clashing with his equally nerdy, deadbeat, chatroom surfing brother, Kip (Ruell), over the phone, Napoleon meets Pedro Sanchez (Ramirez), a quiet, mostly emotionless, mustached Mexican transfer student. The two become friends after Pedro lets Napoleon try out his bike. Napoleon also meets shy, quiet girl, Deb (Majorino), when she advertises her photography studio and arts and crafts to him, which she does to raise money for college, on his porch.

The absurdity of the film continues when it is shown that Napoleon's grandmother, who he lives with, owns a pet llama named Tina. Also, when Kip wants to check out a martial arts studio in town, owned by Rex (Diedrich Bader), how does he get there? He puts on rollerblades and has Napoleon tie a rope to Napoleon's bike, which he uses to pull Kip to the studio. I have to mention Rex's character. He is easily one of the best parts of this film. He isn't on screen for long, but he sure does steal the show. He has a system which he calls "Rex Kwon Do". He also just has a really commanding, raspy voice. Finally, he has some amazing lines like "I'm gonna break the wrist, walk away, break the wrist, walk away." Everything about him is simply fantastic.

More absurdities follow with Napoleon asking Pedro if he will eat his tater tots and takes them when Pedro allows him to. Does Napoleon eat the tots? No! That would be too normal! He instead puts them in his pocket for later. When he begins eating them in class, the class bully, Randy, tries to force Napoleon to give him some of the tots, kicking Napoleon's pocket when he doesn't comply.

After Grandma (Sandy Martin) goes quad biking on the sand dunes with friends and breaks her coccyx, she asks Napoleon and Kip's Uncle Rico (Gries) to watch them while she recovers. After I watched the film again, I realized that Uncle Rico is probably one of the biggest losers ever put on film. He lives in a van (come to think of it, he's the only character that has a car in the film...and he lives in it), relives his high school football glory days (which he didn't even have, he rode the bench) by repeatedly recording himself throwing footballs, and has no job, other than ridiculous get-rich-quick schemes. Napoleon despises Uncle Rico, while Kip likes him, understandably so, considering neither have a job or life, and quickly gets sucked into another one of his schemes. Rico spreads rumors about Napoleon through his potential customers.

After a school dance, Pedro decides to run for class president. Napoleon and Deb support him in his run. Another huge absurdity happens when Pedro decides to shave his head because...his hair was causing him to sweat??? I don't know. Makes no sense. He ends up getting a really stylish wig. Will he win the race? Will Napoleon find a reason to be happy? Will everything end well or poorly? Watch the film to find out!

Napoleon Dynamite is not a film that is meant to be taken seriously or critically analyzed, it's just supposed to be fun, and fun it is. I recently found myself wondering why the film has so many absurd elements. I thought about it and came to the conclusion that, because the film takes place in a small town, residents, especially teenagers, have nothing to do, so they do ridiculous things to entertain themselves and make their own fun. I also believe it is a statement by the filmmaker, Jared Hess, who grew up in Preston, that small towns can be just as, if not more, interesting than the big cities. Also this film is a comedy so that's probably another reason. If you haven't seen Napoleon Dynamite, you are truly missing out on an amazing film. I haven't even scratched the surface at how amazing, funny, and interesting this film is. The low budget honestly made it so much better. I can appreciate it so much more knowing that. All in all, Napoleon Dynamite is an absurdly funny, ridiculous, yet fun film. I rate it GREAT on the scale.