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Written and directed by Jared Hess; starring Jon Heder. Released to DVD on December 21, 2004.  A number of years ago, I read a short story by Alice Adams that had been included in a compilation of the best American short stories of the year. It was a meandering work about a woman’s memories of growing up in North Carolina. I was struck by the story because it didn’t go anywhere. Nothing happened, nobody’s life changed, nor was there any kind of conflict. I couldn’t understand how a story missing all those elements could be deemed one of the 25 best of the year. I reread the story, looking for something that would clue me in as to why critics across the nation were championing Adams work. I ultimately came away from the experience with little in the way of explanation. Watching writer/director Jared Hess’ debut feature, Napoleon Dynamite, I was struck with a similar feeling. Despite the fact that Napoleon Dynamite is, unquestionably, the indie hit of the year, there is nothing in the film that gives me any reason to understand to why this is the case. There is no plot, no particularly sympathetic characters, no visionary style of direction or any wrenchingly funny scenes.  Jon Heder stars here as the titular high schooler. Smoothly and breathlessly combining differing facets of nerds, geeks, dorks, idiots and spazzes into one supreme loser (just look at his picture), Dynamite lives a not-surprisingly tormented and awkward life with his equally socially lacking brother and grandmother in semi-rural Idaho. The grand majority of Napoleon Dynamite is broken down into roughly one-minute scenes that don’t tie into anything else in the movie. There are the occasional plot strands that appear in more than one scene–Dynamite working to get his friend Pedro elected class president and Dynamite’s brother’s on-line romance with a woman from Detroit–but none of these plot strands really does anything to propel the movie forward. As collections of thematically unrelated scenes go, Napoleon Dynamite is at the top of the heap. Compared to even the more poorly crafted studio films though, it seems thread-bare in both plot and intent; I know why I watch Bad Boys II, but I’m not so sure about why I should see this film. Heder is outstanding in his role, developing and applying such a plethora of small character traits to Dynamite that he crackles on screen. Constantly closing his eyes as he talk and punctuating his dialogue with an off-putting set of starts and stops, Heder is magnificently gangly and uncomfortable. Adding to Heder’s mystique as Dynamite was the last scene in the film, a magnificent glimpse behind the curtain where he displa.html>spla.html>spla.html>spla.html>splays an alarming precision at the game of tetherball that he didn’t anywhere else. This gives perspective to the acting, but does nothing to explain the supposed appeal of this film.
jackson casey yes, it's true: Elvis Costello occasionally uses the pseudonym "Napoleon Dynamite" |
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