Napoleon Dynamite

[Magnum Valentino]

Just found a copy of this in my attic and though I've not thought about it in ages I used to absolutely adore it. Anyone seen it recently? Has it aged well? I seem to remember watching it a little while before it caught on (friend who worked in the video shop recommended it a good year before the NI university set started speaking almost exclusively in quotes from it) and was surprised it never really led to great things for pretty much anyone involved.

Seemed like an indie film that became a massive smash but didn't lead to what it usually would have in a Hollywood scenario.

One last thing and it's over to youse  - I had the misfortune of seeing The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang a few years after and I've never seen as shameless an attempt to rip off another film's every idiosyncrasy as what that film lifted from ND.

[sutin]

I watched it a couple of months ago and found it oddly depressing and not funny.

[Jumblegraws]

I liked it at the time, my little sis loved it, have not watched it in yonks. I remember there was an animated series at one point, I guess that sunk without a trace.

I remember some cunt on the IMDB forums trying to argue that people only professed to like it out of trendy groupthink are some shit and that no-one honestly found it funny, which left me with immense dislike of that sort of arrogant bullshit.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I watched it a couple of months ago and found it oddly depressing and not funny.

This is kind of how I found it at the time. A patchwork quilt of memeable content before memes really got going. But also oddly sterile and stilted.

[Famous Mortimer]

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and the animated series was pretty good too.

[markburgle]

First saw it in the last 6 months. Found it decent but didn't blow my socks off. In my ranking of charity shop DVDs it's sandwiched between Little Miss Sunshine and 28 Days Later

[Thosworth]

When I first saw it I thought it was often cruel and mean to the social outcast characters, but then I read an interview with the writers/director and every aspect that was brought up they basically said was taken straight from their childhoods, and it pretty much turned my opinion around; that they were laughing with not at.

[Jumblegraws]

When I first saw it I thought it was often cruel and mean to the social outcast characters, but then I read an interview with the writers/director and every aspect that was brought up they basically said was taken straight from their childhoods, and it pretty much turned my opinion around; that they were laughing with not at.

It has one of the most realistic depictions of school bullying I've seen(or at least, the one that resonated most with me). Napoleon doesn't take Randy's bullying lying down or even seem particularly intimidated by him, but ultimately Randy's stronger than him so he has to put up with his bullshit.

[sutin]

It's the low energy of it I found depressing. It's like the characters are all on smack or something.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

[famethrowa]

I like it, I like the non-specific epoch and low-stakes whimsy and the funny stuff about chickens and cows.

Napoleon doesn't take Randy's bullying lying down or even seem particularly intimidated by him, but ultimately Randy's stronger than him so he has to put up with his bullshit.

True, there's no "bad guys" really, they're just annoyances that karma will hopefully take care of anyway. Even Uncle Rico gets his comeuppance but has a hopeful reprieve from a lonely ending. 

[jamiefairlie]

I get the same 'stale, unmoving underground air' feeling from it that I did when watching all those interminable scenes from Twin Peaks Season 3. Weirdly hard to pin down what the atmosphere actually is but it has an unreality that's a bit uncomfortable.

[SteveDave]

I saw it in the cinema in January 2005 and then ordered the DVD from America the day after. I got a "Vote For Pedro" t-shirt before they started tacking on "NAPOLEON DYNAMITE" underneath it. I was all in.

I might show it to my son (who's 5) on the weekend and see what he thinks.

[Swoz_MK]

Everything that's eaten or drank in ND makes me feel so sick, its like you can smell it and its warm and gone off. I get the same with Gummo.

I really do like it though, so many scenes make me feel weirdly sad. From the dangling of a wrestling figure from  string out the bus window for something to do, the endless grief he gets, the school dance, smacking the Tetherball with ridiculous force. All really gets to me.

[Jumblegraws]

The bit where Napoleon is ditched at the prom and Alphaville is playing really evokes the feeling of just wishing high school was over and done with.

Bloody hell, I feel like my memories of this film were repressed until I opened this thread.

[Des Wigwam]

This is kind of how I found it at the time. A patchwork quilt of memeable content before memes really got going. But also oddly sterile and stilted.

Same for me. I also remember thinking at the time "someone will see this bit and be doing it as a character trait" pretty soon. It seemed to be trying too hard.

Having said that I remember virtually nothing about it - apart from how those sorts of American homes provoke a sort of synesthesia in me (I can't explain it). Would like to see it again and be proved wrong (or just have a better opinion).

[QDRPHNC]

I loved it at the time, in spite of its flaws. Mormon film, that's why no one swears and Uncle Rico talks about finding his soul mate instead of having sex.

[Twilkes]

I hated it at the time, some friends loved it and kept going on about it, but they also liked stuff like Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive which was the worst film I've ever seen in a cinema. I think they did identify with some of the characters though, which I can understand, as so did I when I first watched Sideways and loved it but when I rewatched it before getting married I thought it was a bit sad and grim. Great soundtrack though.

It was probably very much of its time, a bit like Garden State, in that if it had been five years earlier or later it likely wouldn't have been received as well as it did. Both largely forgotten now, never heard Napoleon Dynamite mentioned in 15 years, and Garden State is only referred to by scriptwriting gurus as an example of an aimless lead character with a manic pixie dream girl movie that would never be made these days and shouldn't be used as a template for writing anything. Great soundtrack though.

[Famous Mortimer]

It was probably very much of its time, a bit like Garden State, in that if it had been five years earlier or later it likely wouldn't have been received as well as it did.

Everything is of its time, though. If they'd made it five years earlier or later it would have been different.

[the science eel]

I like it a lot but it's all about the characters APART from ND. He's the most annoying and least interesting thing about it

[David Pielingtonburygrot]

...Mulholland Drive which was the worst film I've ever seen in a cinema

Straight to bed without any tea for you, young man.

[the science eel]

Oh, that's great to read! I fucking hated it too

[Twilkes]

Straight to bed without any tea for you, young man.

It was like an auteur throwing shit at a wall, and then discovering that while no-one wanted a series of walls covered in shit, he might get away with extending the wall a bit using different bricks and some similar shit, and then writing the names of all the people who made the bricks and shat the shit to show that the wall had ended.

[QDRPHNC]

Mate.

[David Pielingtonburygrot]

It was like an auteur throwing shit at a wall, and then discovering that while no-one wanted a series of walls covered in shit, he might get away with extending the wall a bit using different bricks and some similar shit, and then writing the names of all the people who made the bricks and shat the shit to show that the wall had ended.
***** Beg, borrow or steal a ticket!

[mippy]

Couldn't get on with it, felt like the camera was also bullying the characters somehow.

On a similar note, saw Anchorman after the hype and didn't get into that at all either, so maybe I would have liked ND more if I'd seen it before it went memeable?

[Mister Six]

Vaguely recall watching it at the time and finding it sterile and uncomfortable, but funny enough that I rented the creators' follow up, Nacho Libre, which was fun enough but underwhelming (although it did feature a line that stays with me today - "My favourite animals is puppies").

It had the same slightly uncomfortable, melancholic air as a Daniel Clowes comic, and I never really get along with those, so I suppose it must have down something to win me over.

[madhair60]

It was like an auteur throwing shit at a wall, and then discovering that while no-one wanted a series of walls covered in shit, he might get away with extending the wall a bit using different bricks and some similar shit, and then writing the names of all the people who made the bricks and shat the shit to show that the wall had ended.

shit taste and probably stupid to boot

[madhair60]

if anyone wants to watch the cartoon for some reason I have it on my Mega: https://mega.nz/folder/essB2CDK#1ataMXRGJAne668L9wbaVw

there's no official release i don't think so morally you are in the clear

[shoulders]

A wonderful film in my view. Distinctive personality and a singular vision that when bought into is so richly rewarding. Not in a substitute for actual comedy way either, but a world that actually constantly supplies laughs through its dynamic.

I find it quite peculiar how even when it came out it divided viewers into firm like or firm dislike.

Not sure (until recently obviously) I remember anyone who thought it was either pretty good but flawed or poor but not irredeemable. All love or hate.

I'm finding myself feeling annoyed reading some of the opinions above so probably shouldn't say anymore. It's one of the best dozen or so comedy films this century.