Napoleon Dynamite Critic Reviews
Metascore®:
Based upon 16 Critic Reviews- Highest Rated
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Publications (A-Z)
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- Critics (A-Z)
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- Favorite Critics
An inspired dead-end stunt that keeps delivering snarky laughs far longer than it has any right to. Read the full review
There is a kind of studied stupidity that sometimes passes as humor, and Jared Hess' Napoleon Dynamite pushes it as far as it can go.Read the full review
Filmmaker Jared Hess (who cowrote the script with his wife, Jerusha Hess) installs Napoleon front and center as a punchline in and of himself -- and as that dispiriting product of narrative defeat, a symbol. Read the full review
It's a simple collection of sight gags and pratfalls that mines the overly familiar turf of awkward adolescence without bringing anything truly original to the experience. Read the full review
There's plenty of humor in the film, but the movie is often a little uncomfortable to watch, and Napoleon is not an easy guy to like. Rooting for him takes effort. Read the full review
Hess and his terrific cast -- Heder is geek perfection -- make their own kind of deadpan hilarity. You'll laugh till it hurts. Sweet. Read the full review
Has to be enjoyed in spurts. There's no cohesive story, just a series of opportunities for the title character (Jon Heder) to strut his gawky stuff. Read the full review
Napoleon Dynamite is too low-wattage to be a true nerd anthem, but it's charming in retrospect.Read the full review
A one-note, lightweight, condescending comedy about the rubes of Idaho. Read the full review
The performances, even those by trained actors like Mr. Ramirez and Ms. Majorino, have the hesitant, blinking opacity that some directors look for in nonprofessional casts. Their awkwardness is charming, and part of the point of the movie, but it also makes for some dull stretches and thwarts your ability to regard the characters with sympathy rather than mere curiosity. Read the full review
