It seems like my brother had issues with “Napoleon Dynamite”:
During the 19th century, Bethlem Psychiatric Hospital became a popular London attraction, particularly on the first Tuesday of every month when admission was free. All other days, visitors paid a penny to look into the cells of the insane and watch them fight and fornicate. Some tourists brought long rods to antagonize the patients and precipitate an entertaining response.
Today, we no longer poke lunatics with sticks. Don’t have to, as there are films like Napoleon Dynamite that do the poking for us and then record it for posterity. All we have to do is look, point, and laugh.
[...]
What is there to identify with in Napoleon Dynamite? Every time he is beaten, headlocked, or thrown into a locker, we chuckle: there is something about him that not only deserves to be humiliated buts wants to be. Napoleon Dynamite makes us the bully, not the bullied, a bizarre piece of masochism from Hess whose faux-redeeming ending can’t undo eighty minutes of figurative wedgie and latent racism - note how the film’s only latinos and blacks are incorporated into Napoleon’s coterie of half-wits. This is empowering for whom, exactly? Not the lunatics, but perhaps people with sticks.
Read the rest on your own.
23 Comments
That deconstruction is so 2004.
it’s very 2006, as well - i could probably copy and paste as a review for oscar-nominated “little miss sunshine.” they are essentially the same picture, down to their climactic dance sequences.
Which would bring us up to current films.
But you know, sometimes a movie is just a movie.
One of the worst movies I’ve ever seen.
Light-years ahead of anything that hipster fraud “Sacha Baron Cohen” has done.
Yes, because heads of studios generally line up to throw $60 million at hipster frauds for a film on spec they haven’t even seen a script for.
Your obsession is reaching into the realm of the unhealthy, bertt. The fact that Cohen is the most sought after comedian in Hollywood must really be burning a hole in your head. At least when you’re not laying awake at night muttering his name and grinding your teeth at his overwhelming success.
Did it not occur to you that I posted that just to see if you’d bite?
And much sooner than I expected ^^
But let me guess, you’re hoping to replace Ken Davitian in the sequel.
Of course, and I responded just to see if you’d reveal your obvious baiting scheme. And much sooner than I expected.
The cleverness never ends.
Here I give you something more painful than a discussion of the relative merits of Napoleon Dynamite and Borat:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NpDyJObCKOY
I loved “Napoleon Dynamite”, the main message of the movie was that everybody, even an underdog weakling, can be a hero, given the opportunity.
And “Miss Little Sunshine” was about family unity despite of their severe problems.
I loved both movies.
But “Borat” was too dirty and truly gross. I enjoyed the male wrestling sequence, though.
If the guy making Napoleon Dynamite was being racist, it must have been bigotry of the human race - because I can’t think of one redeeming character portrayed in the piece - regardless of skin color or ethnicity…
You guys are reading too much into it. Have you heard of “wacky” caricature of life?
Have you ever laughed at characters appearing in Bob Newhart show? If you start reading into “Larry, Darrel and Darrel” brothers and thinking those characters demean the hardworking uneducated people, you are not getting it.
Just laugh at their wackiness, or difference, and don’t try to read into characters too much.
Maybe you guys got angry about Napoleon’s brother who found the love of his life in a black lady. Hey, it can happen. Don’t have a strong bias. Life can throw a curve.
“Every time he is beaten, headlocked, or thrown into a locker, we chuckle”
Maybe you were one of those bullies in high school. I didn’t chuckle. I emphasized with Napoleon and felt bad. Yes, I was a geek in high school, a mathmatics geek. Speaking broken English did not help.
However, in the end, Napoleon showed what he is made of. A talented individual with some worth. A kind of Rocky in the making.
I enjoyed the movie. As did many high school kids. The theater was filled with high schoolers. It was a sort of “teen movie”, not for old stoggies.
Does it mean I am still young at heart?
Most of you probably don’t know, I didn’t until I began student-teaching and working on a MA-Teaching, bullying is a hot topic in education circles today. You run into it in staff meetings, brochures in the schools, posters on the walls, teachers encouraged to bring it up in class, and young adult novelists encouraged to write fiction about it to combat it.
# 12, Baduk’s comment:
“Maybe you guys got angry about Napoleon’s brother who found the love of his life in a black lady. Hey, it can happen. Don’t have a strong bias. Life can throw a curve.”
Baduk, why should WE (whoever is the WE here) have a problem with this ???
Yo yo yo, hands off the Nubian queen, cracker!
Pretty cool that Baduk is telling us about Bob Newhart, though not the original one. Lurch of the Addams Family…a methaphor of exaggerated commie menace?
to close. Sorry.
dogbert: Light-years ahead of anything that hipster fraud “Sacha Baron Cohen” has done.
Hmmmmm….very, very interesting comment by Dogbert, would you not agree?
dogbert: Light-years ahead of anything that hipster fraud “Sacha Baron Cohen” has done.
Hmmmmm….very, very interesting comment by Dogbert, would you not agree?
It’s always about the Jooooos with you people, isn’t it? ~_^
Bluejives, there are tons of very, very funny Jews. Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Albert Brooks (nee Einstein), etc. The list goes on and on.
“Baron Cohen”, however, is not among them.
Any list of funny Jews must contain “Super Dave,” the funnier brother of Albert Brooks (nee Einstein).
Yeah, Super Dave _is_ very funny. Is he still around and doing specials/Letterman appearances?
Revenge of the Nerds was a better nerd movie. This generation’s nerds are dorks.