Day
181 Napoleon
Dynamite [2004]
Screenplay Jared Hess & Jerusha Hess
Based on ‘Peluca’ by Jared Hess
Director Jared Hess
Cinematography Munn Powell
Music John
Swihart
Leads Jon
Heder, Efren Ramirez, Tina Majorino, Aaron Ruell, Jon Gries, Haylie Duff,
Shondrella Avery
Production MTV Films, Napoleon Pictures, Access Films
IMDb 6.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes 71%
Why
does this film not have a better rating? It’s indie film at its finest. The
films where Napoleon feeds his grandmother’s llama Tina alone should be enough
to win you over. If you don’t like those then Napoleon’s hip-hop dance to
Jamiroquai’s low key classic ‘Canned Heat’ will get you to sign on. I was
thinking of just copying and pasting a list of quotes from the film to prove
how good it is but those of you who haven’t seen it wouldn’t understand Heder’s
brilliant delivery. The one thing I would say about this film is that it gets
more and more boring with every watch, although at the same time the dialogue
is funnier and funnier so I’m not really sure where I stand. The beauty of this
film is that Napoleon is the definition of ‘nerd’, ‘geek’ and ‘loser’. Terms
which in our ever-equalising society are disappearing fast. He is ginger, wears
glasses, has buck teeth, a terrible fashion sense and is into conspiracy and
magic – all suitably traditional nerdy stereotypes. But we laugh with Napoleon,
not at him, and everyone wanted to buy ‘Vote 4 Pedro’ t-shirts. That’s what I
love about film and that’s what I love about this movie. It creates its own
little world where Napoleon is king, I bet his namesake would have loved that.
Acting 4 / 4
Writing 3 / 4
Cinematography 3.5 / 4
Music 2.5 / 4
HWF rating 3.5 / 4
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