| Show Napoleon Dynamite A Quirky Step Forward for Utah Films Allen Johnson Staff Writer Its It's not often that a film made by a BYU student is seen outside of Provo Its It's not often that a film made by a BYU student gets into Sundance Its It's even less often that that film made by a BYU student gets picked up by oy a major distributor And the most least often occurrence is that this film made by a BYU student has nothing nothing noth noth- ing to do with Mormons Take note aspiring filmmakers filmmakers filmmakers film film- makers if you want to get your film seen outside of hap happy y valley make one that doesn t require subtitles for those that dont don't speak This is a smart formula that aforementioned BYU student filmmaker Jared Hess applied to this story of the uber-nerd uber trudging through the ever so oppressive oppressive oppressive sive environment of Preston Idaho With ish fro-ish curly hair big glasses and the ever present moon boots Napoleon takes u us through a senes series of quirky vignettes in m which he lie struggles struggles struggles to make friends get dates earn money and most important earn skills Bouncing off Napoleons Napoleon's antics is is his pasty and equally loser-like loser year 32 old still live at home brother Kip who is committed to his online girlfriend There is Uncle Rico a greasy a ar i fI J l I f r tL I I tLc c f Ii I- I a John Heder and Efren Ramirez reject who tries to strike it rich selling plastic stor storage ge containers and soliciting breast enlarge enlarge- ments Two vo of Napoleons Napoleon's only friends Pedro who speaks very little English but aspires to be class president and date the High School chool hottie Summer played by Hilary Duffs Duff's sister Haylie and Deb an equally odd girl who likes to make plastic key chains to sell to get money for college There really isn't much of ofa a solid storyline which does hurt the film somewhat You are however pretty riveted to see what moronic antics or plots the characters will come n up with next n Many ot or the scenes seemed to o be almost like short sketches leading up to a simple gag which was somewhat funny but just didn didn't didn't did- did nt n t move the forward story The at all characters were odd enough that the viewer average even notice may not Bottom line I think this is a positive step forward for Utah filmmaking Its It's a a pretty well made film that can have an audIence audience audi audI- ence outside of Utah This kind of wider distribution will encourage others to do the same me JA More wider imPOrtantly with distribution comes more money which means investors will be more willing to put cash down for a Utah film The local market is absolutely saturated with films and I think even the faithful are becoming w quite tired of these ese far less than i quality features r its It's possible to make a good j i movie without it being i naughty that isn't about Mormon culture This is what this area needs eeds if ni the me film community community the is is going to grow and thrive in in coming coning n years 10 65 0 |
