DOWN WITH PANTS!

The Down With Pants! crew took in a movie last night on a long awaited evening off. We passed on Dodgeball and instead saw the incredibly funny Napoleon Dynamite , a movie that in my humble opinion will become a cult classic and has spawned another idea of what we will wear for Halloween.

Napoleon Dynamite is a nerd in the rural town of Preson, Idaho. Nothing in particular really happens to Napoleon and the movie doesn't really push it for the laughs. It just lets Napoleon loose and sees what happens.

Nobody is particularly likeable even Pedro and Deb, Napoleon's new friend and his love interest respectively, but it doesn't seem to matter. There is absolutely no sentimentality and nobody really changes or learns anything and yet they all seem grow on you even if you don't really want them to.

Roger Ebert says about the film (he didn't care for it) "Watching Napoleon Dynamite, I was reminded of Welcome to the Dollhouse, Todd Solondz's brilliant 1996 film, starring Heather Matarazzo as an unpopular junior high school girl. But that film was informed by anger and passion, and the character fought back."

I think Rog missed the point. This movie isn't about the anger or passion, it simply is watching Napoleon and telling his story. Not every movie has to have such motivation. Welcome to the Dollhouse was a good film. It presented a take on the nerdy adolescent that was somewhat disturbing at times and laced with anger. I have not seen it in years and don't remember it all that well, but I didn't have any kind of fuzzy feelings for it.

Napoleon Dynamite on the other hand is not disturbing, it just is about people and their lives, as weird and as normal as they may be. DWP! gives it a hearty two pants down!