Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Napoleon Dynamite (2004) – J. Hess

Totally absurd and amusing, feeling sui generis or at least unlike anything else that I had seen at the time.  But also, I guess, a straightforward high school comedy where characters learn stuff and develop over time (maybe). As written and directed by Jerusha and Jared Hess, this is funny stuff but which doesn’t make fun of its characters, however ridiculous they may be. Jon Heder plays Napoleon Dynamite as a sullen teenage nerd (even if the actor was already well into his 20s), defiantly his own person, seemingly unaware that he might be perceived as different.  He’s got an older brother, similarly but differently nerdy, and they live in rural Idaho with their butch grandma (and later cheesy Uncle Rico) – it is hard to know what decade this is because everything seems very dated (furnishings, phones, vehicles) but then Kip the older brother is hanging out in online chat rooms every night and meets a girlfriend that way. The plot, as it is, centers on Napoleon’s new friend Pedro and his decision to run for class president (against popular girl Summer).  Pedro and another of their friends, Deb, are played expressionlessly, leading to some very dry deadpan humor (also typical of Heder who delivers ridiculous lines as straight as possible).  Amon referred to them as NPCs.  Essentially an anecdotal film, with the usual high school rites of passage (school dance, confrontation with bullies, class elections), all treated with disregard and irreverence – yet there is nothing here that smacks of mainstream attitudes or commercial filmmaking (not a teen sex comedy).  There is, however, one amazing dance routine by Heder that has to be seen to be believed.