Napoleon Dynamite

Well, I admit I was late to this party. Furthermore, it's the kind of party I hate -- filled with buzzwords and catchphrases; more bumper sticker and t-shirt than script.

It's a pretty reliable rule-of-thumb that the likelihood of my enjoyment of a movie is inversely proportional to the osmosis of said movie into popular culture. And make no mistake about it, "Napoleon Dynamite" is (for now, at least) as thoroughly enfused into popular culture as a weevil into bolls.

So. Attached to this movie are all the things (well, most of them, anyway) that drive me monkey about popular movies.

And yet. And yet.

I liked it very much. I might have loved it, truth be (shyly) told. It's a script like no other -- ever! -- and the perfomances (as filled with pecularity and uncommented oddness as they may be) are spot on. Napoleon is a geek -- Napoleon is a geek's geek -- he's the ubergeek....as played by Jon Heder, he may be the pure distillation of geek.

But here's the thing: this movie is kind to him. We laugh at his quirkiness and (uttter!) lack of social skills, but we never laugh at him. He's not a caricature to be mocked -- he's a fleshed out young man, struggling to find himself. Just like I did. Just like we all did.

And there are those who claim the movie to be plot-free. To this, I say first that Socrates might have been a little overly enraptured by plot, but I also say that this movie absolutely does have a point....and that point is brilliantly captured in his solo dance.

"Napoleon Dynamite" is about friendship and loyalty and individuality and even (especially as seen in the (unimaginably bizarre) courtship of Kip and LaFawnda) embracing one's place in the universe. This movie is important to young people for far more than the collection of quotes they have incorporated into their speech -- even if they don't know why it's important to them. This movie is about all of us, and the way we all struggle to dance through our own dysfunctions.

Even when our lips hurt real bad.