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Reviews
When Night Is Falling (1995)
unitentionally hilarious ending
Pretty average film, the lead seems like quite a decent actress, shame that her love interest was so wooden. There were attempts to make some sort of religious points but they never seemed to lead anywhere, the plot is basic and shallow. The carnival elements were really campy but served their main purpose so far that they contrasted with the lifestyle of Camille. I thought it was a made for TV movie to be honest but it looks like it is supposed to be an art house film.
The best thing about this film ?, there is an absolutely hilarious payoff at the end (although I am sure it was not intended to be funny by the film maker).
Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
A film that shouldn't be dismissed
This is a film that is very easy for serious film critics to dismiss but they definitely shouldn't. This is a film of our time and quite neatly defines the condition of young people in the middle of this decade. Call it generation Y or whatever else you want but this is above anything else a great representation of current youth culture.
Its a comedy but there are very few (if any) genuine laugh out loud moments, despite this the film is immensely watchable. Driven by the lead character who shares his name with the title of the film, the plot is so invisibly thin that looking back after watching the film its difficult to point out what actually happened, indeed its debatable whether there was anything interesting or memorable in the narrative at all. Most traditional Hollywood films follow a narrative structure, the protagonist always undergoes some kind of change during the story, he succeeds, he fails, etc. Napoleon Dyanamite doesn't really change at all, but as said earlier this is a character led film not a story based one.
Napoleon spends most of his time in a completely catatonic state, he gets beaten up by a bully and just carries on with his life regardless. In teen films of the past this would be the point where Napoleon vows to get his revenge and would eventually turn the tables in a feat of bravery and heroism. Napoleon's reactions are great, whether something good or bad happens to him he sounds exactly the same and most of the time acts the same. This is generation Y, feeling neither the highs or the lows.
I'm not sure why watching this hapless character live his life is so enjoyable, while this film wont have you in hysterics it is gently amusing throughout.