Napoleon Dynamite
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: June 11, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
10
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Film ThreatEric Campos
The cast playing these eccentric characters is magnificent...This is definitely one of the most unique comedies you’ll see all year. Read full review
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Jon Heder in the magnificent Napoleon Dynamite, is one of the most winning movie creations in years. Read full review
90
Dallas ObserverMelissa Levine
It's charming. It's hilarious. It is perhaps the most beautifully crafted, lovingly rendered portrait of extreme geekitude ever to grace the screen. It's Napoleon Dynamite. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
If you're sick of the gross-out gags and sex jokes of contemporary teen comedy, this defiant blast of idiosyncratic individuality just could be your tonic. Read full review
80
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Thrusts us into a high school senior year like no other. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
More than a deadpan comedy about oddball losers. This dork has his day, and this story has its touching subtext -- growing pains relieved by unlikely hope.
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
I laughed. And I laughed primarily over Heder's hilarious performance. You ain't seen nothing till you've seen Napoleon attack that tether ball. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
For older and more reflective viewers, it’s a quirky, fresh slice-of-life more inviting than a tater-tot pyramid. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Hess and his terrific cast -- Heder is geek perfection -- make their own kind of deadpan hilarity. You'll laugh till it hurts. Sweet. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
There's plenty of humor in the film, but the movie is often a little uncomfortable to watch, and Napoleon is not an easy guy to like. Rooting for him takes effort. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
May not make you laugh out loud - it's too sly and subtle for that - but it will have you smiling every minute, and often grinning widely at its weirded-out charm. Nerdiness will never seem the same. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
Refreshing for its simplicity and its originality in a marketplace dominated by soulless blockbusters. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
An inspired dead-end stunt that keeps delivering snarky laughs far longer than it has any right to. Read full review
75
PremiereGlenn Kenny
While Solondz's world is a hell hole and Anderson's "Rushmore" is a place of high-toned and often poignant whimsy, Napoleon Dynamite's unceasing burlesque creates a world that is pretty much a cartoon--and it's a damn funny cartoon to boot. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianKaren Karbo
A cult classic-in-the-making. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
A diverting and loosely connected series of episodes about the most bizarre screen family of 2004. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
An absurdist piece about a rural community of clueless cretins who careen through life like poorly played pinballs, Napoleon Dynamite represents the definition of the comedy of condescension and ridicule. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Both Hesses and a surprisingly large number of their very talented cast and crew are graduates of Brigham Young University's film program: Could BYU one day join the esteemed ranks of USC and NYU? Read full review
70
NewsweekDevin Gordon
This achingly funny film is a string of vignettes with no real plot, so it has periods of pointlessness--come to think of it, it's all pointless. But it has "cult classic" written all over it. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
Napoleon Dynamite is too low-wattage to be a true nerd anthem, but it's charming in retrospect. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Toward the end the freak-show humor begins to yield diminishing returns, but for most of its length this delivers a steady stream of uncomfortable gut laughs. Read full review
63
USA TodayMike Clark
There isn't much Napoleonic grandeur in this Idaho-set high school comedy, which in spite of its most condescending instincts, does have its moments. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
With the exception of one truly glorious dance solo, the movie treats its hero - and his equally uncool family - with undisguised disdain. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
As slight as the picture is, though, its hero is an indelible creation. Read full review
60
EmpireHelen O'Hara
As long as you don't mind making fun of the afflicted, there are some killer comic moments. Read full review
60
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Sure, it quickly turns into a one-note exercise in laughing at the yokels, but at least it has a vision. Read full review
60
The New York TimesDana Stevens
The performances, even those by trained actors like Mr. Ramirez and Ms. Majorino, have the hesitant, blinking opacity that some directors look for in nonprofessional casts. Their awkwardness is charming, and part of the point of the movie, but it also makes for some dull stretches and thwarts your ability to regard the characters with sympathy rather than mere curiosity. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
A one-note, lightweight, condescending comedy about the rubes of Idaho. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
It's fairly entertaining--but not the second coming of indie comedy some notices might lead you to expect. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleCarla Meyer
Has to be enjoyed in spurts. There's no cohesive story, just a series of opportunities for the title character (Jon Heder) to strut his gawky stuff. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
So deadpan a film is Napoleon Dynamite, the story and the name of a gangly high school misfit in Preston, Idaho, that I can't say whether it was intended as a character study or a comedy. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
At the end of Napoleon Dynamite, you're glad the geeks have their day (even Kip's chat-mate turns out be a winner); you're also relieved to be rid of them. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Filmmaker Jared Hess (who cowrote the script with his wife, Jerusha Hess) installs Napoleon front and center as a punchline in and of himself -- and as that dispiriting product of narrative defeat, a symbol. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
It's a simple collection of sight gags and pratfalls that mines the overly familiar turf of awkward adolescence without bringing anything truly original to the experience. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
There is a kind of studied stupidity that sometimes passes as humor, and Jared Hess' Napoleon Dynamite pushes it as far as it can go. Read full review
30
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
If Napoleon Dynamite really is, as reported, a semiautobiographical exercise, it is one of the most astoundingly self-hating such exercises in memory. Read full review
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