Napoleon Dynamite

Our daughter suggested that Judy and I might like this movie, and, sure enough, we did. It's a strange one, a little slow and virtually plotless. Mostly it's just an observation of the lives of some geeky guys and a gal. Napoleon is a high school student who lives with his grandmother and his brother Kip (in his 30s and addicted to computer chat rooms). When the grandmother has a dirtbike accident, Uncle Rico moves in. Rico believes that his life was ruined in 1982 when the coach didn't put him into the big game as the quarterback. He buys a time machine on eBay so he can return to the '80s and change history (and his life). Napoleon finds a friend in Pedro, who runs for class president, his main qualification being that he's the only kid in the school with a moustache.

I don't want to say more about what happens to the various characters because that would spoil the surprises and the fun. Mostly the movie's a series of vignettes, some of them very funny, but be warned: some people really, really hate it. Roger Ebert, for one. Maybe you have to be a little weird to appreciate it. If you do watch, though, be sure to sit through the end credits. There's a five-minute scene tacked on, and it's very funny, too.