How Napoleon Dynamite Broke The Algorithm

Algorithms have a hard time predicting who will like Napoleon Dynamite. Why is that? Let's take a look at what makes Napoleon Dynamite so unique, and also, so hard to recommend.

[NowYouSeeIt]

If you liked the video, consider hitting that subscribe button :)

[apollofell]

I can't begin to describe just how big this movie was in Idaho where it was filmed. We had a Napoleon Dynamite party at the end of 6th grade complete with a dance off and tot-eating contest. I won a trip to Preston, Idaho between innings at a Boise Hawks game on Napoleon Dynamite night. Almost everyone in Preston was connected to the film in some way. Nothing has ever felt like it captured the true mediocrity of middle-class small-town Idaho before or since.

[adamdenardis]

I love how loose the whole movie feels. It's so real and so dumb and so brilliant at the same time. It's wholesome.

[PiercingSight]

Napoleon Dynamite captured the 80's and 90's (and even early 2000's) podunk nowhere absolutely perfectly. It's life just before the modern internet, with all its stumbling friendships, stupid family fights, awkward romances, and every once in a while, that one rare moment when the weirdest kid at school did something so impressive that no one could deny it was cool.

This movie is a time capsule, and it's friggin' hilarious.

[JamesR]

To me, it always felt like a "home movie" rather than a film. I think that's what it comes down to. It's the ONLY movie I can think of that feels like "someone just filmed themselves and their family's genuine going about their day" and it managed to hit theaters. The editing and shots IMO felt more "real life" than pretty much every single other proper movie I've ever seen.

[db]

A lot of the people I know who LOVE this movie say it's because they can relate to it. They're from small-town no-where USA, and they're like "I know that guy", "that was me", "we did that", "I've seen that", "that's exactly what it's like", "this is so relatable that it's hilarious and uncomfortable". What a lot of people don't get (whether the liked the movie or not) is that, for a lot of fly-over America, this is their mundane reality of oddball day-to-day life. It's small town life in the middle of nowhere, with all of the overlooked weirdness that seems to take refuge there.

[amurmurmur]

One of the few moments of pure joy in my life was when my friend from Idaho told me about her experience with this movie. She first watched it in Idaho and neither she nor anyone else in the audience thought that it showed anything odd. Then when she went away to college in Virginia a few months later, she went to an on campus screening of Napoleon with her new friends that really wanted to see it. She was stunned that everyone in the theater laughed at every moment and it was one of the biggest learning moments of her life.

[omgzr]

Also Napoleon is a teenager comedy from the 2000s, back in those days these types of movies featured: Trendy clothing, trendy hairstyles, sexy everybody, sex, big city suburbs location, soundtrack featuring the hottest bands at the moment, famous people.
Napoleon had: outdated clothing (with washed out colors), outdated hairstyles, everyone is ugly, unsexy, nobody fucks, bumfuck nowhere, the soundtrack i shit you not is ELEVATOR MUSIC, nobody famous in it.
Its a memeable timeless masterpiece.

[alicelyons]

As someone who is Autistic. The monotone and often expressionless characters really resonated with me. They still had emotions and character without having to show it on their faces. I relayed to them a lot.

[noahlasher]

The cast and crew of Napoleon Dynamite seem to be really nice people and they always do a ton of meet and greets. Just a few months ago they were at a local theater where I live for a showing and a Q&A afterwards. It did sort of add to the experience of the movie.

[oldallthis]

When this movie premiered, my wife and I went to preview it to make sure it was an okay flick for a 14 year old. We watched the whole film thinking something dark was going to happen, but it never did. We mostly sat there silently stunned. We walked out of the theater, into the daylight, and still hadn’t said anything to each other. Just before we got to the car, I turned to her and said “I don’t know what we just saw, but that’s going to be a cult movie.“ Yeah, I was prescient, so, you know, I have that going for me.

He, of course, loved it when he saw it, and my wife and I have watched it and quoted it often. How often? Whenever we WANT!! GOSH!!!

[sillybilly]

Honestly this movie really resonates with people like me from middle America, especially the west. Everyone I know in Utah love this movie. Middle America is full of characters stuck 20 years behind the rest of the country, so I’d assume more urban populations wouldn’t really get the specific lampoons.

The Tupperware schemes, the boondoggles, the 4 H club, the fashion, the incoherent farmer, thrift stores, etc.

[KMFDM]

There's something oddly familiar and nostalgic that I can't really put my finger on. Something that captures the sweetly mundane, often awkward and yet dramatic little parts of youth that have been locked away and forgotten. Eating food from your pockets during class is something I'd done but have totally erased it from my memory until I saw that scene. The mystical powers of Ninjas and their weapons taken from the back pages of old comic books that somehow became fact among your friends. Bike tricks being the pinnacle of awesome...

[newq]

I discovered Napoleon Dynamite during one of the lowest, loneliest periods of my life in high school. I rented it on a whim and watched it late at night on a school night when I was supposed to be sleeping. I instantly fell in love with it and it's been a favorite ever since, but I could never quite put my finger on what exactly resonated with me so much until someone pointed out to me that the it's a movie about loneliness and overcoming it. I guess that's definitely a part of it. Also add to that the rural setting that very strongly resembles the place I grew up and it all adds up to be exactly the movie I needed at that point in my life. 18 years later and I'm still so grateful I stumbled on it.

[ronnidcnative]

I LOVE this movie! It's about friendship, loyalty, and courage when Napoleon dances to backup Pedro when he can't do his skit. Napoleon also scores a win for the downtrodden uncool kids. I love how the universe sets things right at the end for all the quirky but good-hearted people. It makes me happy to see them happy. The last montage scene always warms my heart.

[TJ]

i watched this movie for the first time in college while stoned out of my mind and i think that is still the most I have ever laughed at something

[dl]

Napoleon Dynamite involves the viewer, who has to find what's funny or what's deep, rather than throwing it in your face where you can't miss it. And that takes multiple viewings, with the movie being appreciated more and more each time. That's rare.

[trinaq]

It took me a while to really appreciate this quirky film. The plot mostly meanders along, with nothing really much happening. But at the beginning, Napoleon states that he's going to do "Whatever he feels like doing", so it works as a slice of life look at offbeat characters, who are all memorable in their own ways.

[SamuelKristopher]

I come from a small town in New Zealand and this film became immediate cult classic there. Before we even knew about memes we were trading pictures of ligers, making our own vote for pedro shirts, and quoting the film everywhere we could. Probably one of the biggest film experiences of my mid-late teens

[derossiTV]

this movie is spectacular and i dont care what anyone says. the scene where rico sits down kip and napoleon to watch a video of him throwing a ball holds a special place in my heart