—four sticks of doom

Several people have mentioned to me that they don't want to see Napoleon Dynamite. "High school was hard enough the first time," they say, "and I don't want to relive it." To them I say: you must watch this film, because it's the only way to achieve any sort of catharsis. But really, this isn't a film for ex-geeks or ex-jocks or ex-anything in particular. It's no glossy, bittersweet John Hughes flick, either—the geeks at this high school don't look like John Cusack or Anthony Michael Hall (who only seemed dorky because they were so young). Nope, Director Jared Hess has Fellini's eye for weird yet engaging faces, and he has used this talent to assemble a completely believable ensemble of misfits. Napoleon himself (played by Jon Heder) has an angular face, buck teeth, and an unsettling way of speaking through his mouth and his nose at the same time. We're talking Grade A prime geek, here.

The setting is Preston, Idaho. Awkward Napoleon Dynamite, with his Dragonslayer posters and the "Pegasus Xing" sign hanging on his bedroom door, is just trying to get by. His brother, Kip, is a 30-something geek who resembles nothing less than Herbert Kornfield, guest columnist for the Onion (especially later in the film, but I don't want to give anything away). Then there's the excessively tan Uncle Rico, who ropes Kip into a shady business deal, flirts with the high school girls, and generally makes life difficult for Napoleon. Uncle Rico is obsessed with finding a time machine on E-bay, so that he can return to his football glory days. One of my favorite moments is when he's sitting on the front porch with Napoleon and his brother. "Who wants to bet I can't throw this football right over those mountains?" Rico asks, looking wistfully at the horizon. You can't help liking someone this ridiculous.

Napoleon quickly befriends Pedro (Efron Ramirez), the bashful new student, and after bonding over Pedro's bike, they try to figure out who to take to the school dance. They both are semi-interested in a fellow misfit named Deb (Tina Majorino, who played the little girl in Waterworld). Deb's a photographer for Glamour Shots. She wears a ponytail on the side of her head, and walks with a prim, stiff gait, as if she hasn't quite figured out what to do with her changing body. But she's shyly endearing, too, and it doesn't take long for the three of them to become friends.

One of the subtleties of Napoleon Dynamite is that it illustrates the different sorts of social and cultural characteristics that can make kids stand out from their peers. As part of his campaign for school president, Pedro makes a pinata that resembles his opponent, and invites his school mates to destroy it. He's thoroughly bewildered when the principal lectures him for exercising what to him is just a cultural tradition. "We do it all the time in Mexico," he says.

I admit that for about the first hour, I didn't know what to think of this movie. I was stunned by its strangeness, its disjointed whimsy, and the fact that I often didn't know whether I was supposed to laugh or wince. But the more I watched, the more I came to realize that the seeming chaos was masterfully orchestrated. Like the lead character, the film lopes along in a gawky fashion, just doing its own peculiar thing, and inexplicably arrives at a place of brilliance. The tone has something of the sardonic dryness of Ghost World and the Christopher Guest films, but it never allows you to keep your distance from the characters—rude, gangly, and silly as they may be. This is a film that delights in the absurdity of human behavior, and in the ultimate freedom that comes with not fitting in. In the end, Napoleon undergoes a hilarious, Herculean feat of bravery for his friend, and this gesture seems to epitomize the filmmaker's essential optimism, not only about high school, but about the world beyond as well. There is ugliness, sure. Shallow image-consciousness?—plenty of that, too. But there is also loyalty. And in some cases, there is a fierce, laughable, and heroic tenacity that comes from not knowing any better.

Long live Napoleon.

Pedro for President.

Tags: movies