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"(3 left ten years earlier. but the nuttiness of his old fr'entls. a stand :Jf‘ .mtl‘ “is anerrrl 'l’:ri‘-"eering .iuattk :>‘ a father lar‘ Holnt and the DOESSllN‘ll‘, {3‘ romance with kooky free spir't Sa'h lNatalie Portmani persuade him that maybe there is life beyond the drug- induced coma he's been lll for almost a decade.
Zach Scrubs Braff writer director feature debut is — for at least two thirds of its running time — an absolute joy. touched by the spirit of Van Sant. Egoyan, Keyin Smith. Mike Nichols
and las ever With filmmakers of this generationl John Hughes. Braff embraces With considerable aplomb themes as profound as the communal guilt of the family unit. the contradictions of returning and the gap of knowledge between those who
Peppered with sight gags. Aaltrgi is also distinguished by some amusing cameos. including Jason Ltlt'l‘.
Stock . . . Flemying's hapless motocross aficionado i'lt's people like yOu who give people in wheelchairs a bad name.’ he rages at Ben and (-‘iusi.
PERMS: MOONBOOTS AND CARTOONS stay and those who leave. Structured and Aki Kaurismaki's factory owner, James Momam meets JON HEDERi the Star Of hit US comedy in essence as a series of Vignettes that who drolly wraps up proceedings. NAPOLEON DYNAM'TE' , 7 V _ aspire to be both blackly comic and What's so refreshing is that our Fortunately for Jon Heder, he looks nothing like Napoleon Dynamite, the very funny, Braff's film masterfully protagonists are deeply selfish and fiber-geek high school student he plays in the hilarious rites-of-passage mixes up his excellent cast lespecially cantankerous individuals: finding comedy of the same name. Relaxing in a London hotel, absent from the remarkable Peter Sarsgaard as old themselves in a series of l)l[£lll(: Heder's ensemble look are Napoleon’s permed ginger hair, spectacles, mate Mark, last seen here in Shattered Situations. they have no qualms about MC Hammer pants and moon boots - although the lip curl is most Glass). nicely odd locations and an off- explomng and abusing those who try definitely his. With his brown hair brushed straight, and his pretty new beat story trajectory With some killer to offer them asSistance.
wife Kirsten hovering outside, the Oregon-born actor is a mite cooler lines l'There's a handful of kids songs I iTom Dawsoni
than his nerdy screen counterpart. Until, that is, he says of the perm: ‘I kinda missed.' Large murmurs to Sam I UGC. Glasgow from Fri (3 Dec and
actually kept it for a while. It was kind of fun.’ But it’s this sort of empathy with Napoleon, who spends his days
when she tries to serenade him. ‘There‘s a handful of kids things I Wish
FI/lll/lOL/SG. Edinburgh from Fri Klan.
playing a one-man tetherball, that has led to the film becoming one of I had kinda missed.’ she shoots back). V‘Nlll COMEDY
the surprise word-of-mouth hits of the year in the US. A true And then Braff. as both director and 8 independent success story, costing just $400,000, Napoleon Dynamite writer, lets things slip. What was a (1 5) 90min ..
has remained in the box office charts for over five months, accruing pleasingly leftfield. character-driven g. I .
$43m to date. And the cult is growing; praise from British comedy stars black comedy begins to mutate into a such as Simon Pegg and Matt Lucas can be seen prominently on the particularly painful episode of poster, no doubt heralding similar success over here. Dawson's Creek. The funnies dry up.
It was while studying 3D animation at Brigham Young University that the very American babble takes the Heder, now 27, was recruited by writer-director Jared Hess for the short ante and one starts to notice JUSl how film precursor to Napoleon Dynamite. Made for $500 and shot in two blarineg over-scored the picture is days, Peluca saw Heder play an early incarnation of Napoleon across with nonstop blurts of Nick Drake one day in his life. ‘It was a class assignment,’ confirms Heder. ‘Jared lgoodl. Simon and Garfunkel lOKi and
had always wanted to make a feature film, but he wasn’t planning on Coldplay (very bad). A dreadful shame.
doing it on that. It was more of an experiment. But he loved this Please re-edit this fer the DVD release
character and he saw it worked out so well - everybody loved it - that he Zach. (Paul Dalel
decided to base the feature on him.’ I General release from Fri 70 Dec. Expanded to full-length, the film - set in a present-day Idaho See interview. page 63.
backwater - taps into the current fad for all things retro. ‘I just saw it as
this small town in the middle of nowhere that is not really up to date,’
says Heder, who lives in Utah himself. ‘lt’s like a time capsule. It’s not up
to date with everything in fashion, style or technology. It captures all the
decades and mashes them together.’
Remember when the remaining Carry
On learn reunited ‘i‘lllh a few alternative comedians for the
LTRA
ROAD MOVIE
disastrous Carry On Columbus? Well. this so-called comedy from former FOrget lnSide I'm Dancxng — this year's Comic Strip guru Peter Richardson is
(15) 93min 0...
While he‘s just performed in the motion-capture animated film Monster most entertaining disability comedy is much the same deal. only ten times House alongside Maggie Gyllenhaal, Heder is also set on improving his this wonderfully irreverent Belgian worse. After all. Channel 4's The own animation skills in tandem with his acting. ‘l’m developing my own road movie. Co-directors Benoit Comic Strip was a landmark in 80, ideas for animation,’ he says. ‘At some point I want to do my own - though Delepine and Gustave Kemern take comedy. This shambles. featurirg If .r;
it would be cool to work for Pixar.’ A Napoleon Dynamite cartoon, anyone? on the lead roles of the feuding I Napoleon Dynamite is on selected release from Fri 3 Dec. See revrew, middle-aged neighbours. who are
likes Of Rik Mayall along with rriore recent comics like Vic Ree res and
page 59.
62 THE LIST . 7 "C New
both paralysed from the waist down followmg an agricoltural aCCident.
Bob Mortimer and League of Gentleman's Steve Pernberton.