By now I’m sure you’ve at least heard of this little gem of a
movie, “Napoleon Dynamite” written by Jared and Jerusha Hess, young
filmmakers from the great state of Idaho. The film was nominated
for the Grand Jury Prize (note: a big deal) at the Sundance Film
Festival and generated early buzz amongst the Wes Anderson and
Dungeons and Dragons crowd. But you know what? It is actually
appealing to a much wider audience!

It draws the crowd into its surreal world of quirky characters
to an astonishing degree. “Dynamite” pulls off the impossible by
making a mainstream audience laugh at things they would never have
laughed at before. It refrains from resorting to flatulence, sex
acts with pie, or pee jokes, like so many sub-par comedies do
nowadays. It’s the little details that’ll tickle your funny
bone.

The titular character, played to wonderful geeky absurdity by
newcomer Jon Heder, lives in a small Idaho town (are there any big
ones?). He goes to your average movie high school where he is
picked on by your average movie high school jocks and jerks, but
this is very much balanced out by Napoleon. The hero sports an
awesome hairdo that rivals Samuel L. Jackson’s “Unbreakable”
sideways afro. He wears moon boots, enormous glasses and clothes in
true geek, chic style.

The story, if any, involves Napoleon helping his friend Pedro
(“the only guy at school who has a mustache”) campaign for class
president. Pedro’s competition is Summer Wheatley, played by Haylie
Duff, who seems to be making better career choices than her tween
pop star sister Hillary.

“Napoleon” is not so much a coherent story as it is disconnected
sketches set up to display how bizarre Napoleon’s life is. He
shoves tater-tots into his pocket to save for later. He feeds ham
to his pet llama, named Tina. He drinks raw eggs. He hurts his
groin going off a bike jump. He gets nailed in the face by a steak
thrown by his uncle Rico.

Uncle Rico, a forty-something nobody with dreams of traveling
back in time to play high school football one more time in an
effort to go professional, is reason enough to see the movie. Rico,
in his drawling voice, makes comments like, “I bet you I could
throw a football over that mountain,” with such sincerity it’s hard
not to laugh.

The characters, like the story, are never really fleshed out,
but this is easily forgivable. This is one of those movies where
the writers did not set out to teach a lesson or change your views
on American life.

Don’t go in thinking that just because it’s an indie movie that
it’s going to be mind blowing. These filmmakers simply wanted to
make the ticket buyers laugh, and they succeed beautifully.

There is hardly a moment where we see Napoleon on screen and do
not laugh, whether it be an endlessly quotable one-liner or a plain
and simple goofy look.

If you want comedy and depth, go see “Garden State.” If you want
ridiculous dancing and grandmas riding ATVs, then you’ve come to
the right place.