Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

For a while after Napoleon Dynamite‘s release, it was hard to avoid ‘Vote for Pedro’ shirts and clips of Napoleon dancing on stage, which goes part way to explaining why so many feel it’s one of the best comedies to come out in the ’00s. But there are equally many people who found this movie to be boring or at least a bland experience and I’m left somewhere in the middle.

There’s no getting away from the fact that the plot is thin and the comedic set pieces only made me laugh because of how absurd the situations/people in the movie were. But the minimalistic deadpan slice-of-life comedy filmed in a quirky and refreshing manner kept me entertained enough to watch all the way through.

Moreover, the outlandish characters provide funny moments mainly because you can still see elements of realism in their actions and liken them to people you know in real life. We all know a Napoleon after all.

That said, my desire to re-watch this film any time soon is low to none. It’s hard to get wrapped up in a movie that at times felt like a series of outtakes sewn together with a few lines of dialogue added in an attempt to make the movie make sense.

Set apart from other deadpan comedies by its quirky nature and a convincing performance by Jon Heder in the principal role. Napoleon Dynamite is a comedy that every movie fan should see at least once, there you will be able to form your own opinion on the piece and decide if this is a seminal landmark in ’00s filmmaking or just that decades Freddy Got Fingered.