Hey all…I want to return to the topic of Napoleon Dynamite for a moment. The College is sponsoring a free screening of the film this Wednesday night. On Thursday night, Aaron Ruell (Kip) and Efren Ramirez (Pedro) will appear at our Sotille Theater to speak, present assorted clips, and do a Q&A. The students who organized this event asked me to moderate. I’d like to use this blog as a sounding board of sorts–see if you all think I’m heading in a good direction.
I expect a substantial portion of the audience will be made up of CollegeHumor.com types who will demand that Aaron Ruell say, while in character, “I’m out to make some sweet moolah with Uncle Rico!” (I’m sure Ruell and Ramirez are anticipating as much–the actors’ reps sent ahead a rider indicating that the two “will not appear in character”). If this is the case, I will need to nudge everyone in the direction of some substantial talk. I may ask if either Ruell or Ramierez can account for how Napolean Dynamite has became iconic for the next generation (both squiib and reynolds indicated they were perplexed by its popularity with “the kids”). I must say, I enjoyed the film, and I think we can at least try to understand why “the kids” dig it so much. Given how they are bombarded with shows like “Dawson’s Creek” and “Joan of Arcadia”–the official stories we tell about adolescence, those slick, glossy, “how to make it through pre-adulthood” guidebooks–I can imagine a film like “Napolean Dynamite” is like a breath of fresh air. But I think one of the more useful contributions I could make to the discussion would be to address, as others did here, the question of whether this film invites spectators to empathize with the characters or encouarges them to, as Arnab put it, judge them from a position of urban superiority–or perhaps, more daringly, whether or not the film is asking spectators to test its own conflicted feelings about and adolescence in general?
Does anyone care to pass along some questions? No answers to said questions required…I’m just looking for something that might prompt discussion. I just don’t this event to spiral into something like a hybrid of “Inside the Actors Studio” and “The Chris Farley Show.”
I have not seen the film, but I remember when the internet marketing on it first creeped up – before the film was released – the studio was marketing it as ALREADY a cult/underground/this-generation’s-‘Graduate’-or-‘Salinger’ kind of hype.
In fact, it seemed so caluculated and determined to set the parameters of the film ahead of time, that it turned me off to wanting to see it.
This of course has no bearing on whether it’s good or funny. But it might be interesting to get the filmmakers’ take on the aggressive internet marketing of the film as a “breath of fresh air” rather than allowing the public to call it such on their own.
I do hope you plan to use a stack of blue index cards, John. One must not reinvent James Liptons’ wheel too much.
The Kids? ask them why everything they see has to be so filthy, so loud, so disgusting! ask them why when their mother and me are working our hands to the bone at the restaurant we meant to pass on to them they are snickering up their sleeves at Donkey Kong or whatever the hell it is and some stupid movie about kids blowing up their high school with dynamite. That’s real funny! They should have seen Anzio for a big laugh. Let’s see them and their tarts with half a shirt and a tattoo put bread on the table with smart-ass remarks. That’s the kind of America we left Sicily for..feeehhhh! Ask ’em that, the kids!!
Good point about representations of adolescence–except I’d say “Freaks and Geeks” traveled the same alt-O.C. pathways in more complicated fashion. Napoleon sets up adolescence AS freakishness, which is interesting, but perhaps not exactly a challenge to the glossy fashion-mag portrait of teens… in fact, you can imagine Napoleon D on the fringes of 90210, never in the frame but part of the same representative universe (where you’re either beautiful or … well, a freak). (Or Aaron Spelling’s daughter, which means moneyed, which equals beautiful.)
But that might be a really interesting way in–what is the range of possible “teen subject positions” available in films today? How does/doesn’t Napoleon challenge those possible representations?
I would repeatedly ask Aaron Ruell to do the dance. Ask him again and again.
I think the film’s genius is in production design. I’d ask about that–the low-budget aesthetic, or something. Put a verb in there. Questions with verbs work better, I hear.
john, let us know how it went. sorry i couldn’t come up with any questions or suggestions.
The event went well. The place was packed, absolutely packed. The guys (Aaron Ruell and Efren Ramirez) showed clips from the film, then I asked them a few easy questions (“how did you guys get involved in this project?” etc.), then they showed some behind-the-scenes photos, and we finished up with questions from the audience. The questions were of the “will you sign my shirt?” and “where’s Napolean?” vein. One fellow did raise the issue of whether or not we were meant to laugh at these characters. Aaron’s answer was that Jared Hess never intended for us to laugh at the characters, and that nobody on the set ever laughed during the filming. They played the characters straight and never broke out laughing during a take or in rehearsal. Hmmm…Unfortunately, it was my job to moderate, not investigate, so I never intervened during the Q&A, otherwise I would have tried to get answers to some of the questions that weren’t being asked.
I did have lots of time to talk to the guys during dinner, and one of things I asked Aaron was if he had a favorite “high school” film (Aaron is about 26, so I assumed there was a “Napoleon Dynamite” for him when he was in High School–I told him that, for me, the film was “Heathers”). He couldn’t think of a film that affected him as much as “Napoleon Dynamite” is affecting young audiences today. He couldn’t even think of any high school films from the mid 90s. I asked Efren the same thing, and he went off on how a lot of good actors got their start in “high school” films (Sean Penn, Matthew Broderick, John and Joan Cusack, etc.). I was tempted to add Judge Reinhold to the list.
Aaron and Efren are nice guys. Aaron is especially quiet and thoughtful, and Efren is extremely engaging and funny. Loves to be “on.” He has been acting since he was 13, and did 3 years of improv, which was evident during dinner and the Q&A. Both are very charming. Their favorite colors are periwinkle blue and brown, respectively. Both are virgins.
I’m going on and on here, so I’ll stop. I thought some of you might be curious.