Napoleon Dynamite: Difference between revisions

An independent movie directed by Jared Hess and distributed by Fox Searchlight. ''Napoleon Dynamite'' is a subdued and sweet little cult film, telling the story of a trio of friends and their attempts to overcome their status as social outcasts. The film became legendary for making audiences laugh at The Sundance Film Festival, and subsequently became a huge hit with the teenage crowd of the 2000s, resulting in a cult following similar to teen movies of the 1980s. The atmosphere of ''Napoleon Dynamite'' is peculiar, with downplayed humor, quiet absurdism, largely unrelatable and awkward characters, and deliberately stilted dialogue -- butdialogue—but at the film's core is a very intelligent and optimistic portrayal of high school life.

The eponymous Napoleon is not just a [[Hollywood Nerd]] -- he—he's a real genuine dork, not particularly skilled at anything, angry at the world, incapable of even the most basic friendly conversation, and a mouth breather to boot. He has [[Dull Surprise|exactly one]] facial expression. People don't like him and he doesn't like people.

* [[Anachronism Stew]]: The movie lulls you into thinking it's the 80's (with the music and the characters' clothes) then jolts you out of it when Summer plays a [[Backstreet Boys]] song -- thoughsong—though Kip having an internet relationship also seemed to contrast the 80's atmosphere. This was intentional, to make the setting/characters seem "backwards" when in fact the story takes place in the present.

* [[BigNon LippedSequitur Alligator MomentScene]]: In-universe: Napoleon's dance sequence is completely unexplained. It is unrelated to any aspect of Pedro's campaign, style, or personality (which was, itself, very random). It does not respond to Summer's campaign promises by any means. It comes out of nowhere and makes zero sense and has very little context. Everything goes quiet, and then - {{spoiler|thunderous applause; Pedro wins}}.

** It's a rare [[Justified Trope|justified]] BLAM, though--Napoleonthough—Napoleon only did it because he had no idea that he and Pedro were required to perform a skit, so he just did the first thing that popped into his head to stall for time. {{spoiler|It works beautifully}}.

* [[Retro Universe]]: Both in-universe and in [[Real Life]]. As it turns out, the town they filmed in (Preston, Idaho) really ''was'' like that, since significant portions of Utah & Idaho (specifically, the more rural and Mormon-dominated areas) are notorious for being 10-1510–15 years "behind the curve" in regards to popular culture of almost any sort.