sundance

Napoleon Dynamite

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Napoleon Dynamite. Napoleon Pictures 2004.

Before watching the movie:

This movie took my school by storm. I saw nothing that appealed to me, but even as someone whose reaction to hype is to become more determined to avoid it until it goes away, the power and longevity of the hype was starting to wear me down, until a peer whose opinion I respected told me “watching it will take 20 points off your IQ”. So I decided it had nothing for me, and eventually the hype went away. The cult stayed, but they got quieter.

By now, the main evidence this movie was popular is the occasional Vote for Pedro reference drifting by like a tumbleweed. Perhaps that means it wasn’t as formative as some other movies I could have included this month, but when I think of movies my generation loved, this is at the top, even if it never sold me.

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Garden State

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Garden State. Double Feature Films 2004.

Before watching the movie:

I honestly have no idea what this movie is. I think this movie fixed in my mind that New Jersey is called the Garden State, and it stars Zach Braff apparently trying to do something more serious than Scrubs. I seem to recall that it might be a road movie?

Beyond that, the only thing I associate with this movie is that it keeps coming up as an underappreciated failure that millennials love.

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This Film is Not Yet Rated

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This Film Is Not Yet Rated, IFC Films 2006.

Before watching:

This Film is Not Yet Rated is a documentary about how the MPAA works. I think I’d heard about it before, but what brought the movie to my attention was when Mugglecast discussed the announcement that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince received a mere PG rating. Host Andrew Simms gave a summary of how the MPAA rating board operates, citing from this film. I understand from him and from the box that it’s an exposè of MPAA corruption.

I’d also like to say hi to my parents at this point, who will probably be among the first to read me write about watching a movie that got an NC-17 before appeal. Fun fact: I spent an extra minute finding a work-safe picture.

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