Saw Napoleon Dynamite today at Neil's insistence. Now, this is a funny movie. That should be said up front. It will make you laugh. You should see it.

However, if you're anything like me, you'll leave the film feeling hollow, because unlike the far superior movies it blatantly rips off -- Rushmore especially, but also Donnie Darko, and one scene in particular from Hugh Grant's About a Boy -- the movie is in no way life affirming. You're laughing at caricatures, not with three-dimensional characters, and except for the last five minutes (which, not by coincidence, feel extremely tacked on), there's nothing in this movie that suggests even the possibility of redemption or joy.

Rushmore isn't like that. Even Donnie Darko isn't like that. And it's a huge problem for the film.

I leave Rushmore feeling energized. I left Napoleon Dynamite feeling bad about the world.