Napoleon Dynamite
Stream
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A listless and alienated teenager decides to help his new friend win the class presidency in their small western high school, while he must deal with his bizarre family life back home.
What critics thought
Napoleon Dynamite landed as a genuine cult oddity — deadpan, lo-fi, and resolutely strange in ways that divided critics right down the middle. Jon Heder's performance drew near-universal notice, but whether the film's studied weirdness added up to something or was just affectless emptiness was the real argument. Popular affection has only grown since release, outpacing the more cautious critical response of 2004.
“an epic, magisterially observed pastiche on all-American geekhood, flooring the competition with a petulant shove”
Michael Atkinson·The Village Voice
“may not make you laugh out loud—it's too sly and subtle for that—but it will have you smiling every minute, and often grinning widely at its weirded-out charm”
The Christian Science Monitor
“the movie makes no attempt to make [Napoleon] likable”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
“film's most interesting quality, which is its stubborn, confident, altogether weird individuality”
The New York Times
Genres
Comedy
Cast & Crew
Jared HessDirector
Jon HederNapoleon Dynamite
Efren RamirezPedro Sanchez
Tina MajorinoDeb
Aaron RuellKip
Jon GriesUncle Rico
Sandy MartinGrandma
Diedrich BaderRex
Haylie DuffSummer Wheatley
John SwihartComposerNapoleon Dynamite
A listless and alienated teenager decides to help his new friend win the class presidency in their small western high school, while he must deal with his bizarre family life back home.
What critics thought
Napoleon Dynamite landed as a genuine cult oddity — deadpan, lo-fi, and resolutely strange in ways that divided critics right down the middle. Jon Heder's performance drew near-universal notice, but whether the film's studied weirdness added up to something or was just affectless emptiness was the real argument. Popular affection has only grown since release, outpacing the more cautious critical response of 2004.
“an epic, magisterially observed pastiche on all-American geekhood, flooring the competition with a petulant shove”
Michael Atkinson·The Village Voice
“may not make you laugh out loud—it's too sly and subtle for that—but it will have you smiling every minute, and often grinning widely at its weirded-out charm”
The Christian Science Monitor
“the movie makes no attempt to make [Napoleon] likable”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
“film's most interesting quality, which is its stubborn, confident, altogether weird individuality”
The New York Times
Genres
Comedy
Cast & Crew
Jared HessDirectorJon HederNapoleon DynamiteEfren RamirezPedro SanchezTina MajorinoDebAaron RuellKipJon GriesUncle RicoSandy MartinGrandmaDiedrich BaderRexHaylie DuffSummer WheatleyJohn SwihartComposerStream
Rent & Buy