Napoleon Dynamite

Napoleon Dynamite Something like a cross between the late, lamented TV show “Freaks and Geeks” and Alexander Payne's grown-up high school comedy “Election,” “Napoleon Dynamite” is the offbeat indie poster child of the year. The title character is a high school kid, who, along with his friends (well, friends may be overstating it) is so disaffected that he can't even bother to be disaffected. The story unfolds in a Midwestern landscape that seems stuck in the fifties, except for the internet and cell phones, and it is peopled by characters whose inarticulateness is stunning. The kids seem to wander through their existence in some sort of stoner daze, but in fact there are no drugs, so sex, and the most violent thing that happens is Napoleon gets shoved against his locker. These are basically good kids, if a bit distracted by their own addled thoughts. The tone of the movie is absolutely flat and affectless, but it treats its eccentric characters with affection and grace, and the movie achieves a kind of diffident charm. Funny and strange in equal measure, and almost surreal at times, Napoleon Dynamite is the summer's anti-blockbuster. Every summer needs one of those.