Has anyone else seen
Napoleon Dynamite yet? My wife and I caught it at our local indy/art house over the weekend, and we both loved it.
The movie, which screened at Sundance, is the story of Napoleon Dynamite, who goes to high school in the small town of Preston, Idaho. Napoleon is social outcast, and gets picked on and beat up for his nerdy tendencies. He spends most of his time in class drawing mythical creatures (such as the liger - a half tiger, half lion, that is bred for it's skills in magic), and for a current events report he recounts a story about Japanese scientists who attempt to blow the Lochness Monster out of the lake.
Napoleon lives with his grandmother and his 31-year old brother Kip. When Napoleon's grandma gets injured in a quadcycling accident his Uncle Rico comes to stay with them. Uncle Rico is stuck in his glory days of high school football, and Kip spends his entire days chatting to hot chicks on the Internet.
The story mostly centers around Napoleon's interactions with Deb and Pedro. Deb is a girl who shows up on Napoleon's doorstep trying to sell boondongle keychains and glamor shots to raise money for college. It's almost immediately apparent that Napoleon has a crush on Deb, but he's too awkward to do anything about it. Pedro is a recent Mexican immigrant who comes to town and becomes friends with Napoleon. With Napoleon's help Pedro runs for class president against Summer, the most popular girl in the school.
I found the high school scenes to be best parts because they were so much like my own high school experiences. The dance scenes were particularly spot-on - even down to playing Alphaville for the slow dance.
The movie is full of great quotes, with a definite Mormon slant on the language. (Lots of use of the words "heck" and "gosh"). And the characters are all hilarious in their own ways.
There are some problems with the movie: the pacing is a little slow, and lot of the scenes feel like independent sketches thrown in for comedies sake. But, the biggest criticism I've read is that it's difficult to pinpoint when the movie takes place. Many of the fasions seems like they'r straight out of the 80s, but some of the music choices and the presence of the online chatrooms seem to contradict that.
This movie is defintely not going to be a blockbuster (as evidenced by the fact my wife and I saw it in a nearly empty theater), but it's sure to be a cult classic. Go check it out if you're looking for a break from summer action films, or if you just want to see something completely goofy.