The Off-Beat Comedy That Made Back Over 100 Times Its Budget, Stream It Today

Shot with a modest production budget of just $400,000, Napoleon Dynamite went on to earn $46.1 million at the box office, making it a runaway success before becoming a total cultural phenomenon in the years that followed its release. If you’re of a certain age, you probably had at least one friend who purchased a “Vote for Pedro” shirt from Hot Topic, or got really into the disco-funk styling of Jamiroquai’s back-catalog because of this movie.

The film’s legacy is just as weird as its premise about an awkward high school student with a penchant for eating tater tots out of his sweatpants pockets, but its overall quirkiness stood the test of time and is seeing a renaissance on streaming as it perfectly captures the socially awkward adolescence that many of us experienced first-hand while growing up.

Napoleon Dynamite centers on its titular protagonist (Jon Heder), a 16-year-old from Preston, Idaho, who claims to be an expert in martial arts, but is relentlessly bullied at school despite these claims. His home-life is uneventful, but not without its problems, as his brother Kip (Aaron Ruell) spends most of his time pursuing a romantic online relationship with a woman named LaFawnduh (Shondrella Avery).

Additionally, Napoleon’s uncle Rico (Jon Gries) is supposed to take care of him and his brother, but is more concerned with filming himself throwing a football and roping Kip into get-rich-quick schemes.

Set in an inescapably rural town, Napoleon Dynamite is completely unrelatable to me because of its setting, but insanely relatable to me because of its characters. As Napoleon befriends Pedro (Efren Ramirez), and his eventual love interest, Deb (Tina Majorino), the feelings of small-town isolation are apparent, and in a way that’s universally appealing. We’ve all had those awkward moments trying to find the right things to say to our high school crush, but what sets Napoleon apart is that he simply blurts out whatever is on his mind, no matter how idiotic sounding or abrasive it may be.

The reason Napoleon’s delivery is so effective is because it’s hard to tell if he’s just fearless and bold, a complete idiot, or a fascinating combination of both of these personality traits.

There’s also an undeniable indie-film charm to Napoleon Dynamite that will make you wonder if the production was a complete joke, or if it was the result of inexperienced filmmakers (Jared and Jerusha Hess) doing the best they could with whatever limited resources they had at their disposal at the time of production (it was both).

The scene when Napoleon calls Kip from the school nurse’s office because he needs his emergency ChapStick (because his lips hurt real bad), is so inconsistent that you can’t help but laugh over the fact that the scene wasn’t edited more efficiently. With each cutaway from Kip to Napoleon, the amount of shredded cheese on Kip’s nacho plate fluctuates in a way that’s impossible not to notice.

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Napoleon Dynamite is independent filmmaking in punk rock form. It’s brave, experimental, bootstrapped in the best kind of way, and most importantly, earnest. There’s something to be said about a movie that seems so unironically genuine that its overall quirkiness can be overlooked because it has such strong characters. If you’ve never had the pleasure of watching such an odd-ball exercise in coming-of-age storytelling, it comes with strong recommendations that you stream Napoleon Dynamite on Hulu as soon as you get the chance.