SubGenius Super-Spazz Good Movie Alert
Correspondent:: "Rev. Ivan Stang"
Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2005 13:28:53 -0500
--------
We watched that fairly new movie "Napoleon Dynamite," which I had um
found after hearing my daughter and niece talk about it.
It's about the most fucked up nerds in the world, I mean, really REALLY
dysfunctional teenagers, and mental teenagers, in Podunk, Idaho, and
the fucked up shit they bring upon themselves. You're horrified
throughout the first 70 minutes of the movie and then everything
changes very quickly and when it's over your wife is weeping because
it's so sweet, and you're trying to remember roughly where all the best
rants or one-liners occur in the film so you can go back and pull them
for your radio show or whatever.
The characterization and dialog kept reminding me very positively of
Coen Bros. poebuckers-in-surrealand movies like Raising Arizona and The
Big Lebowski. Most CHARMING fucked-up dysfunctional nerd dialog.
There is a "Revenge of the Nerds" aspect to it, only it's more Luis
Bunuel than Animal House. It's also a bit reminiscent of Gummo,
although in some ways its Gummo's opposite.
The most riveting thing about it is, if you're a SubGenius who has
dealt with many SubGenii of the less exalted socio-economic
backgrounds, you're thinking, THIS IS ALL SO HORRIBLE AND YET IT'S ALL
SO VERY VERY REAL. And if you're me you're going "Holy fuck, I was THIS
CLOSE to being THAT BAD." In fact maybe I WAS that bad and just cannot
bear to SEE it.
The important thing is how we all ended up, and that's the best part of
the movie.
It can work as a chick flick. It's actually pretty sophisticated
considering its setting and the crackerjack way the actors pull off
down-home lower middle clss poebuckerism. I pray that the actor playing
the dude stuck in the 80s was indeed an actor and not the director's
friend playing himself.
There's a Mexican immigrant teenager character who is just fucking
great, one of the most memorably bland and patient characters I've
encountered in a movie in a long time. Implacable, ultra-realistic. My
daughter almost married a guy sort of like this. When Napoleon's
ubernerdly brother finds HIS true love, I kept seeing a slightly
grotesqueified cartoon of myself and Princess Wei, although she did not
appreciate me comparing myself to that guy. It's true that I am a
little taller and not so callow anymore.
Anyway -- you'll hear the weirdo kids talking about how good it is and
the Pinker kids talking about how it sucked. I listened to the weirdo
kids and I'm glad I did. Napoleon Dynamite kicks ass.
--
The SubGenius Foundation, Inc.
(4th Stangian Orthodox MegaFisTemple Lodge of the Wrath of Dobbs Yeti,
Resurrected, Rev. Ivan Stang, prop.)
P.O. Box 181417, Cleveland, OH 44118 (fax 216-320-9528)
Dobbs-Approved Authorized Commercial Outreach of The Church of the SubGenius
SubSITE: http://www.subgenius.com PRABOB
Correspondent:: "Rev. Lee Austin"
Date: 4 Feb 2005 10:47:26 -0800
--------
The scene where Napoleon is throws some sort of fruit at the uncle's
van is priceless. The stutter-steppin standoff in the field, followed
by the faceplant over then fence.
--
Rev. Lee Austion
"IF YOU ARE NOT A SUB THEN LEAVE THE DOM!"
--spex
Correspondent:: "End x Art"
Date: 4 Feb 2005 11:40:31 -0800
--------
Posting from google.
In reply to your wondering who that actor is that was playing the 80s
era uncle, I'm pretty sure that's the same guy that played Laszlo from
Real Genius. Another fantastic character.
Correspondent:: Zapanaz
Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2005 12:06:54 -0800
--------
On Fri, 04 Feb 2005 13:28:53 -0500, "Rev. Ivan Stang"
wrote:
>It's also a bit reminiscent of Gummo,
Argh. That movie fucked with my head but good. I don't remember what
it was about it that messed me up so bad.
I go out looking for reality movies, and I usually like movies more if
they are more reality ish, or my opinion about what reality should be,
anyway. Like "The Ninth Gate" to me is a reality movie but "Life is a
House" to me isn't. But I digress.
But then I find one like Gummo that really IS reality and it leaves me
in a catatonic stupor for a week. (that movie Bjork was in did that
to me too).
And it takes me a year to -forget- it enough that it doesn't bother me
any more.
Fortunately I have completely forgotten what it was about Gummo that
messed me up so bad but I remember it messed me up bad.
I think I will rent it tonight.
--
Zapanaz
International Satanic Conspiracy
Customer Support Specialist
http://joecosby.com/
"It is no measure of health
to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."
- Krishnamurti
Correspondent:: "iDRMRSR"
Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 16:01:22 -0500
--------
Z...
Hey before you grab GUMMO for a second shot at it, see if you can dig up a
copy of :
Leolo (1992 French Canadian flick). Plumpers. Fucking cats on a bet.
Extended Excremeditation scenes. Tomato Impregnation. Shrimping old men.
Yeah, this one has coming-of-age reality written ALL over it. It's like
GUMMO was made from stuff too normal to leave in Leolo.
Trust me on this.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104782/
[*]
-----
Correspondent:: "Rev. Ivan Stang"
Date: Sat, 05 Feb 2005 12:00:05 -0500
--------
In article , iDRMRSR
wrote:
> Z...
>
> Hey before you grab GUMMO for a second shot at it, see if you can dig up a
> copy of :
>
> Leolo (1992 French Canadian flick). Plumpers. Fucking cats on a bet.
> Extended Excremeditation scenes. Tomato Impregnation. Shrimping old men.
> Yeah, this one has coming-of-age reality written ALL over it. It's like
> GUMMO was made from stuff too normal to leave in Leolo.
>
> Trust me on this.
>
> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104782/
>
> [*]
Okay, I'll go back in time to last night when you handed me a VHS copy
of it!
Oh wait, I don't need to do that now. DID I ALREADY? I'm confused now.
--
The SubGenius Foundation, Inc.
(4th Stangian Orthodox MegaFisTemple Lodge of the Wrath of Dobbs Yeti,
Resurrected, Rev. Ivan Stang, prop.)
P.O. Box 181417, Cleveland, OH 44118 (fax 216-320-9528)
Dobbs-Approved Authorized Commercial Outreach of The Church of the SubGenius
SubSITE: http://www.subgenius.com PRABOB