Napoleon Dynamite

Synopsis:

Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder) is a high-school outcast in every sense of the word. More interested in playing tetherball by himself and drawing pictures of his favourite animal, the "liger" (a combination of a lion and a tiger), Napoleon is ignored by everyone in his tiny hometown of Preston, Idaho.

At home, things aren't much better. His uber-nerd older brother Kip (Aaron Ruell) and ultra-vain Uncle Rico (Jon Gries) are too busy with their own obsessions to give Napoleon the time of day.

It isn't until a new student, Pedro (Efren Ramirez), arrives that Napoleon finds friendship and performs an act of brave defiance that makes him a true hero.

What the critics are saying:

"At times the humour is reminiscent of The Simpsons (a school bus drives by a field just as a farmer shoots his cow in the head); at others it's Fast Times At Ridgemont High told exclusively from the geeks' perspective. Forget American Pie, this is the slice of school life to tuck into."
- Adrian Hennigan, BBCi Film

"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."
- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

"It's tight, resonant, funny as hell, seriously bent and whacked, and also wonderfully healing."
- Stephen Hunter, Washington Post