I’m sure the vast majority of you have already seen Napoleon
Dynamite, but it’s a sort of drama story that is filmed much like Juno and
Little Miss Sunshine, but with less actual plot. This is a short plot summary
taken from IMDb:
“A listless and alienated teenager decides to help his new friend win the class presidency in their small western high school, while he must deal with his bizarre family life back home.”
The thing about the official summary is that it only really
deals with the last 1/3 of the movie. The greatest part of the movie is just
setting things up, and even the class presidency storyline seems muddled down
by all the other things that are going on in Napoleon’s life. Giving up an
enticing plot for more of a slice of life story is an acquired taste, but I
honestly love those types of movies. To follow someone else’s life can be somewhat
interesting and I feel like I can connect better to the characters and even
understand the humour more. To me, Napoleon Dynamite is so slice of life that
nothing can be forced and everything is believable concerning the plot and the
characters. The awkward moments are properly placed, the jokes are believable,
and the cute moments are very few, but favourable.
When it comes to characters, each one of them has their own
story and own ideas that isn’t improperly forced on you. All the characters in
Napoleon Dynamite get a proper amount of screen time for you to understand what
you need to about them. This is especially true for the grandmother. She only appears
for a few scenes, but you know exactly the type of person she is through her appearances
and what other characters say about her. If I were to choose a character that
sticks out the most to me, it would obviously be Napoleon just because we get a
completely feel for him because of how the movie follows him completely. I do
feel, however, that the characters of more popular crowd are a tad
stereotypical, but I think that’s the point of their characters, as they aren’t
supposed to be fully developed and are just there to move the plot forward (or
what there is of a plot).
The music in this movie is just plain entertaining to me. It’s
just so… indie sounding, I guess. The music does fit properly in the movie and
doesn’t really disturb the viewing, but enhances it. Not much else to be said
about that, honestly.
The only real possible downfall to the movie is the fact
that you need to be able to watch a rather slow-paced movie that unravels
itself much like how events in real life do. Nothing in the movie is over-done
and there is not real ‘interest’ value other than that in Napoleon’s life and
the jokes that come up. I have to say, some of the character’s side plots are
quite ridiculous and unfold so subtly that you need to think back as to what occurred
before to cause the change in the character.
Overall, I personally like Napoleon Dynamite, but I think it’s
definitely not for everyone. If you’ve seen Juno or Little Miss Sunshine and
enjoyed the way it was done, then you should try out Napoleon Dynamite, if you’ve
not yet seen it.
Well, that was a sufficiently boring review. Apologies. I’m
better with things I feel strongly about.
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