AT THE MOVIES WITH KASEY BUTCHER
For some reason really weird movies have had really big success this summer. Case in point: Napoleon Dynamite.
This bizarre movie about one of the biggest nerds you will ever meet is a hilarious comeback for the “loser movie.” Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder) is a teenager who still obsesses over unicorns and other magical creatures. He can’t get a girl, he can’t get a car, and he just can’t seem to get his grandma’s llama to eat when he feeds her. Napoleon lives with his grandmother and his thirty-something brother, Kip, who still resides at home and is a bigger loser than Napoleon. Kip (Aaron Ruell) spends hours a day in a chat room with his soul mate Lafawnduh. When Grandma Dynamite gets into a freak dune buggy accident, however, Napoleon’s sleazy uncle, Rico (Jon Gries), comes to baby-sit. Meanwhile, Napoleon is trying to find a date for the spring dance, while hiding his affections for his neighbor Deb (Tina Majorino, Alice in Wonderland) and helping his new friend Pedro (Efren Ramirez) win the election for Class President against the most popular girl in school.
To truly sum up the storyline of this seemingly plotless movie, think of all of the teen comedies of the eighties, especially the fashion, throw in an extra dose of nerdiness, a great dance sequence, and a touch of MTV productions and that is Napoleon Dynamite.
I find it interesting how successful this movie has been when not a single person in the cast is well-known. Heder is hilarious. The comedy in this movie rests on the shoulders of his performance and he is outstanding. Ruell, Majorino, and Efren also had notable performances.
Napoleon Dynamite is truly unlike any movie I have ever seen. It is pointless and strange, but at the same time it is insanely funny. Between my brother and my friends, I hear Napoleon’s catch phrases, such as “maybe I will, gosh” once every five minutes. It is the kind of movie that a person doesn’t dream will be hilarious until they see it for themselves, which I highly recommend the viewer does.
Another quirky movie to check out is Super Size Me. This movie is the pop-documentary in which director Morgan Spurlock eats nothing but McDonalds for thirty days and has a team of doctors including a general practitioner, a cardiologist, and a nutritionist follow the digression of his originally clean bill of health. Over the thirty days, Spurlock gains over twenty pounds, consumes thirty pounds of sugar, and twelve pounds of fat. His liver also becomes as sick as that of an alcoholic’s.
This somewhat disgusting, but Sundance Award Winning (Best Director), film provides a lot of information as well as hilarious moments. As dubious as some of his techniques may be, we have Michael Moore to thank for this new genre of film. Documentaries that are in no means unbiased, yet are always entertaining have done wonderfully at the box office this summer. This movie is a great example. It was an intelligent gross out that made me laugh and never want to eat fast food again.
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