Napoleon Dynamite

Jim Daze

Well-known member
This is a funny film, it's a bit like Rushmore crossed with Ghostworld meets Revenge Of The Nerds.
The lead character Naploeon looks like someone you would see hanging out in Hoxton but without the irony and wears these incredible snowboot/trainer hybrids. It's basically an attack conformity in praise of the geek, who wins out.

I laughed out loud on several occasions and have watched it a couple of times since.
Anyone that lives in East London, you can get crisp promo copies on road for a fiver.

The U.S. school system always looks harsh in these kind of film, all that emphasis on teams and winning etc, culiminating in this end of year dance.
I love to know how any of the U.S posse out there survived this experience. ;)
 

stelfox

Beast of Burden
i watched this last night - i was in stitches almost all of the way through it, especially during the martial arts class and the dance scene. great stuff.
napoleon actually really reminds me of a guy i used to work with who i once observed eating three entire chocolate oranges during his lunchbreak. when i asked him why, he replied: "to see if i could."
 

stelfox

Beast of Burden
no one's really gotten to the bottom of this. the director, jared hess, reckons he met someone who went by that name in chicago while he was on a mission for the church of jesus christ and the latter-day saints - hess is a momon, as it happens.
 
Last edited:

rewch

Well-known member
deep unreconstructed joy

saw it on saturday with my american gf who found it almost unbearable because too accurate (but loved it)...with a bit of distance i found it absolutely superb...but i'm sure i read in one review that there was a fifteen minute scene after the credits...was my cinema shite or is my memory shite?
 

ambrose

Well-known member
:eek:

???? wtf this is the worst film i have ever seen!

i have never walked out of a cinema before, but had to leave this after 30 mins. it was completwely devoid of any humour, it sort of looked like some sort of pisspoor student rag "high school geek" skit. THe portaits of the characters in the film make "Saved by the Bell" look like a well observed, subtle take on the "jock", "nerd" etc etc.

It bears no resemblance to a Wes Anderson film. It may be that that was the effect the film makers wanted to achieve, but boy did they ever fail.
 

rewch

Well-known member
ambrose said:
:eek:

???? wtf this is the worst film i have ever seen!

...but had to leave this after 30 mins. it was completwely devoid of any humour...

It bears no resemblance to a Wes Anderson film. It may be that that was the effect the film makers wanted to achieve, but boy did they ever fail.

wtf??? same film???

wes anderson???

no humour??? was it meant to be a wes anderson film???

que?
 

stelfox

Beast of Burden
i always find it amusing that people say they walked out after half an hour and then claim to a worthwhile opinion!
the funny thing is that the "i walked out" argument is always strengthened by how *little* the viewer actually saw of the film; "i bailed after 5 minutes" being more of a condemnation than "i'd had enough after an hour".


i haven't read a single word in my life. books are shit.
 

luka

Well-known member
ur, yeah but by the same token you don't need to read the daily express from cover to covre to say its a shit paper.
 

nick.K

gabba survivor
i loved the film while i was watching it but I could never see it again, perhaps cause i identify with the characters so well. any outsider can identify with napoleon, but i'm not that keen on revisiting my miserable adolescence. the film wasn't as excruciating as Todd Solondz and didn't take itself as seriously as Michael Haneke, so i was quite pleased.
 

nick.K

gabba survivor
and the catchphrases particularly good.

'sssweeeeeeeeeeeeet'

'tina, come git yer ha-am'

'gaaauuwsh' (gosh, said very slowly)

I didn't find the characters grotesque, they have something of the aspergers syndrome about them but I know those people and although they're generally unkindly represented in films, Napoleon Dynamite seemed to be laughing along with them. For example - Kip (the older brother) is so accurate it's barely funny - he's exactly like my next door neighbour : lived with his parents (still does), was the same age, same tash, same lisp, same appearance, he was online in 1990 and ran the Furry Muck (soft-porn sci-fantasy anthropomorphic comics) web-ring, but couldn't actually string a sentence together. yes i know Kip's storyline wasn't the most plausible piece of the film, but his character moved on, no?
 

rewch

Well-known member
i'm with you mr. k...i thought it was done with real affection...& i loved the way it opened up plenty of opportunities for a descent into squalor & sordid suburban darkness & neatly sidestepped everytime...cf. uncle rico about to have his photo taken & the viewer assumes he's about to make a dirty pass at deb & instead of unbuttoning his shirt he reaches for a flier for his rather pathetic business...& i finally know what a corndog looks like...not that i want to eat one
 

ambrose

Well-known member
"wtf??? same film???

wes anderson???

no humour??? was it meant to be a wes anderson film???

que?"


Jim Daze said:
This is a funny film, it's a bit like Rushmore crossed with Ghostworld meets Revenge Of The Nerds.

a bunch of people made references to the Anderson connection on ILX too.

as for not being able to form an opinion having only watched 30 minutes, well its true that maybe the rest of the film was absolutely brilliant, but my reaction only applies tto the first half an hour or so. So me saying "its shit" = "the first 30 mins are shit". you got me bang to rights. i dont know why dave seems to think that i consider to have a "worthwhile opinion", as far as i know i ave never offered a worthwhile opinion on any messageboard. Certainly not "worthwhile" as per dave's definition, whatever that maybe.

but whatever, this film was rubbish, and im not going to give it a second chance.
 
Top