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A really poor man's Todd Solondz film. This film simply takes the idea of a somewhat retarded, badly dressed main character and tries to get us to laugh at his pathetic existance. Look at his 70's style tshirt with the horses! Look at his nerdy 30-something brother with the moustache! Look at how funny he is when he tries to hit the tether ball! This artfully-designed-nerd genre has run its course I think.

I actually turned this off before I got halfway through. Aside from a clever, well art directed credit sequence and a couple of cheap laughs this had nothing going for it.

Not sure why people make such a big deal about it.

Posted at December 30, 2004 01:02 AM

A poor man's Todd Solondz? I always felt that Todd Solondz was a particulary exploitative filmmaker, especially in "Happiness". Napoleon Dynamite appeared to be the same way, only with a more oddball 80's vibe to it, rather than Solondz's hours of films showing how much he loathes and mocks everything he creates.

Or do you feel different? Do you enjoy Todd Solondz?

Posted by: brent dragoo at January 2, 2005 02:28 PM

Todd Solondz can definitely be described as expoitative, especially his last film "Storytelling" which I don't think worked at all. But I think his films have a lot of humanity, I definitely wouldn't say he loathes his characters. Whereas, "Napoleon Dynamite" takes the aesthetic and the mockery from Solondz's style and and adds nothing else but a few cheap laughs.
Who knows though, I only watched less than half the film, maybe it got better.

Posted by: Rich at January 2, 2005 05:37 PM

Rich -

I was interested in seeing this but after read your review and others when the dvd came out, I am going to pass.

Posted by: Mike at January 5, 2005 12:00 AM

Mike, I'm glad I saved you $5 and 90 minutes there.

Posted by: Rich at January 5, 2005 03:32 PM