Celebrate the joys of being a nerd
Oh, how sweet to be the guy that gets beaten up by the jocks, can’t find a girlfriend and generally doesn’t seem to fit.
Napoleon and his happy odd friends and family are a million miles away from Elephant and everyone in Larry Clarks films. With an execrated deadpan delivery and plenty of moments of uncomfortable clumsiness.
Drawing on the sort of pleasantly dysfunctional humour that Todd Solondz uses to pepper his very dark tales, Napoleon and his friends may be nerds, but they just don’t care (and therein lies the lesson).
Napoleon doesn’t really have a huge amount on confidence, he just does what he thinks is right and doesn’t really plan anything long term. That or he is just simple.
Either way watching Napolean’s adventures is a simple joy, which I would think that most people will enjoy laughing at, or identifying with. The fact that Napoleon has a bit of fun with it, and we are sympathising with him more than looking down at him makes it all a bit of fun. To us lucky Australian some of the characters are ridiculously exaggerated, and I hope that it stays that way.
Napoleon Dynamite is a great bit of fun, and highly recommended.