I saw the movie “Napoleon Dynamite” tonight and I loved it. I hope you get a chance to see it soon. Here’s part of a review that describes the film better than I could:

The most hilarious movie this week [at Sundance] – and one of the funniest to play here in years – is “Napoleon Dynamite,” a gut-busting loser-makes-good comedy so brilliantly loopy that its off-kilter sight gags, straight-faced performances and eccentric script are as disorienting as they are hilarious. Its study of an Idaho high school geek and his search for love and respect owes much to Todd Solondz’s “Welcome to the Dollhouse” but substitutes that film’s deep-rooted cruelty for a sense of true admiration towards its outcasts and misfits. Directed by Jared Hess (and co-written with wife Jerusha), “Dynamite” is sharp, silly, sweet and a joyously original vision.

What makes “Dynamite” such a sly first film is that it uses its inherently raw style and low-budget production value to its advantage; this is not a story of wisdom gained or maturity realized, but a snapshot of awkwardness briefly conquered.”

In some ways Napoleon Dynamite is similar to Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Punch-Drunk Love” in that it focus on rubes. But where Punch Drunk Love snears at the rube, Napoleon Dynamite celebrates rubes and their foibles. Plus it helps that Napoleon Dyanmite was shot in Preston, Idaho, 30 miles north of my hometown.

The trailer is available here.