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Napoleon Dynamite By J. Morelli  From the opening credits, I had a huge smile on my face. Its not too often I go into a film super psyched. I knew that this film was something special. I not only like this movie because they gave me free Chapstick, Trading Cards and a T-shirt…no…I am only bribed by hard liquor, drugs and poon. This film is just funny, not funny in the conventional “I tell a joke and you laugh at it” kinda way. This film is funny, everything about it, from what the characters wear, say and do. To the choice of plot lines it is just god damn funny.
Jared Hess, the director, does a really good job of going completely sideways with the film. He is probably getting compared with Wes Anderson in terms of style. But with a Wes Anderson film the craziness stops at a certain point and people accuse it of being “really crazy and zany”. Well, for me, Anderson’s films never go all the way, not to bash them, I love his films. But with Napoleon Dynamite Jared Hess finds the line and crosses it with his very rich film in terms of the detail it provides. You can tell that the comedy and the actors were the main area of concentration for Jared Hess. He didn’t do the first time director thing and go all flashy with his shit. The actors too, fucking great comedic performances all around. Jon Heder who played Napoleon was fucking top notch. The actors who played Pedro and Kip were also really good. Tina Majorino and Jon Gries were also really funny. I know this is a boring review, but a boring review equals a good movie, in order for me to bash something it needs to be shitty. This movie has no such shittiness to it, just laughing and weirdness. My favorite scene is the Flashback involving Pedro. Pure hilarity. On all fronts, I recommend this film, a strong candidate for my favorite film of the year. So please, do yourself a favor, and go see this film.   4 1/2 out of 5 Stars 2004 |
