digamma.net - notes

Napoleon Dynamite finally came up in my Netflix queue after I was told by any number of people that I just HAD to see it and, well, Shaun Brady of Philadelphia City Paper said it better than I possibly could, in devastatingly few words:

The bastard child of Rushmore and Welcome to the Dollhouse, Jared Hess’ debut marries Wes Anderson’s 2-D compositions and deadpan smash-cuts to Todd Solondz’s misfit grotesques, but lacks his predecessors’ flair for empathy…. Heder throws himself vigorously into the role and can’t help but earn some laughs along the way, but the endless variations on the same joke soon grow tiresome and Hess too often resorts to laughing down at his characters. Only Tina Majorino, as Napoleon’s would-be love interest, creates anything resembling a human being; the rest of the cast are one-note caricatures and clothes hangers for thrift store kitsch.

Straight up. I’d question whether Solondz ever really had a flair for empathy, but that’s another post.