further evidence of how i am becoming increasingly alienated and cranky as i get older

Yesterday in the mall, I was passing by one store and saw that it had two different endcaps devoted to the sale of merchandise associated with the film Napoleon Dynamite. It also seems to be a favorite film of some of the undergraduates who work across the hall from me. So, wanting to keep abreast of cultural trends among Kids These Days, I checked out the movie after the Sociology Gala last night. It's 94 minutes long. I was amused for maybe 10, off and on, like the scene where Napoleon gets hit in the face with some meat while he's riding a bike. As far as I can tell, most of the film taps into the same humor vein as what would find hilarity in circus sideshows, dwarf-tossing, or killing a person's cat and feeding it to them, only in ND the humor is specifically tailored to appeal to the BlueStateYouth set. It's interesting how a film can be unrelentlingly culturally elitist and meanspirited until the last few minutes, but then happy everything up with a series of swift and improbable plot developments--involving, first, the electoral affections of Napoleon's suspiciously large rural school, and, second, involving three different female character's completely inexplicable romantic choices--so that it comes across like it was really a good-natured and sweet movie after all.