“Tapawingo” is the Spiritual Sequel to “Napoleon Dynamite”
In 2004, audiences around the world were introduced to Jon Heder by way of Napoleon Dynamite. He played the titular character, a nerdy, awkward teenager with a perpetually grumpy tone of voice. A little over twenty years later, Heder returns to a character who has a lot in common with that breakout role, just a little older now. Dylan K. Narang’s Tapawingo is a return to the Hot Topic mall era of yesteryear, a time when no idea was too absurd and no joke too dry.
courtesy of Tapawingo
Nate (Heder) is a typical slacker. He has a job, but it’s not one he particularly wants or likes. Nate’s got one friend, Will (Jay Pichardo), a fellow slacker. The two spend their days working at their terrible jobs, hanging out, and waiting for the day their life is going to change. Nate gets his wish when his boss asks Nate to pick up his son, Oswalt (Sawyer Williams), from school. The two form a weird bond that leads Nate to protect Oswalt from the town bullies. By doing so, Nate has inadvertently become public enemy number one to the Tarwater family of bullies.
It’s not just Heder who will inevitably make the mind wander to Napoleon Dynamite. There’s a similar trapped-in-the-’80s, midwestern aesthetic with moments that evoke the blocking of Wes Anderson in Tapawingo.. The colors are bright, more saturated than the real world, in the same way these characters are an extreme, weird version of a real person. The token punk spends her spare time going around the neighborhood karate-kicking recycling bins. It’s ridiculous, but it’s also entirely in line with the eccentricities of the world that has been built here.
courtesy of Tapawingo
As with Napoleon Dynamite, there’s a certain subset of audiences who will be tuned in to the wavelength Tapawingo is emitting. Those who aren’t will find it strange, with perhaps too-dry humor that won’t land. Those are the same critiques that befell Napoleon Dynamite two decades ago. While it feels wrong to keep comparing Tapawingo and Napoleon Dynamite, Tapawingo does act as a slightly matured, spiritual successor to the road paved by Jared and Jerusha Elizabeth Hess twenty years ago. Both share a reverence for the oddball characters who live in small towns and drama that can take over an entire zip code. And they’re both nostalgically out of date the moment they’re made.
One of the main differences between the two movies is that Napoleon Dynamite doesn’t crack 90 minutes, while Tapawingo pushes two hours. Part of the magic of the weirdo, absurdist comedies of the aughts was their brevity. It’s extremely difficult to sustain this style of humor over the course of 150 minutes, no matter who’s in the filmmaker’s chair. Tapawingo will speak to a generation that misses the oddball sincerity of the aughts and potentially win over some Napoleon Dynamite non-believers with its more fleshed-out narrative.
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