Watching...

Napoleon Dynamite. As a marketing phenomenon and cultural touchstone, the success of this movie speaks for itself. As a movie, it's the gangly, geeky, uncoordinated cousin to a family of funnier, more assured movies like Election, Welcome to the Dollhouse, and practically everything by Wes Anderson, especially the great Rushmore. In fact, ND might be considered the first Wes Anderson-style movie made by someone other than Wes Anderson. But the performances were too broad and the tone was too bland. It was just a comedy, and not a particularly funny one beyond the goofiness of the title character.