Having always been a member of the in-crowd at school, I found it hard to relate to Napoleon, the star of Jared Hess’ debut feature film, Napoleon Dynamite. He is the ultimate nerd, the kind of kid I and all the other cool guys at school used to alternate between laughing at, beating up or just feeling sorry for due to his utter patheticness. He wears unfashionably large glasses, tucks his t-shirt into his pants, spends every free moment sketching mythical creatures, rarely communicates in more than monosyllables and always sports a face which is the definition of gormless with his eyes all but shut and mouth hanging open. But perhaps the most galling thing about Napoleon is he seems to feel no remorse for or need to remedy his pathetic state.

He happily spends his lunchtimes playing tetherball on his own and seems quite dismayed if not disgusted whenever he is shunned. He is quite certain that it is the rest of society that has the problem and not him. As well as Napoleon, we meet Pedro, the new kid at school who immediately impresses Napoleon with his teenage moustache and Deb who is equally socially inept and would be Napoleon’s potential love interest if only he wasn’t so off in his own world that he fails to notice that she likes him. The film has only minimal plot as if to emphasise the pointlessness of Napoleon’s existence. What plot there is focusses on Pedro’s attempt to be elected school president. Unlike Napoleon, Pedro is not content with being a geek and is quite sure he is meant for better things, that he will be elected school president and that he will take Summer, the most popular girl in school, to the prom. As if to prove that losers exist beyond high school we also meet Napoleon’s brother Kip who at 32 spends his days searching the internet for his soul mate and his uncle Rico who always has some get-rich-quick scheme on the go, be it Tupperware or herbal breast enlargement.

But it seems Jared Hess, the film’s director and co-writer, did not have the good fortune to be cool and feels much affinity with Napoleon and his cohorts. Rather than treat its characters with disdain, the film revels in their mundane lives and their small defeats and victories. Even I couldn’t help feel some empathy for these people, who despite their misfortunes never lose hope, become bitter or attempt to be someone they are not.

If like me you were a jock and never understood or cared to understand geeks a) what are you doing at reading a review on this website anyway and b) this isn’t the movie for you, with its pre-occupation with life’s losers, freaks and no-hopers. However, if you were always the outsider at school then you will be laughing out loud at how accurately this film recreates that life in its lead characters and how compassionately it does it.

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This entry was posted by the illustrious Andrew Coulthurst on Tuesday, December 14th, 2004. It concerns such pressing issues as . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.