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Topic: Jerusha Hess

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	FilmStew.com • Napoleon Dynamite (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		First-time director and co-writer Jared Hess (a 24-year-old Brigham Young University dropout with a $500 student film that got him into Hollywood and whose story is probably far more entertaining than that of Napoleon Dynamite’s) is a gifted director who simply can’t rein in his own desire to out weird everything else around him.
		Every character in the script he concocted with his wife Jerusha is extreme (no normal people are around to contrast them), every set piece is purposefully awkward (a wall telephone is placed too high for no apparent reason) and most of the character’s motivations make sense only to them.
		Hess wants you to identify with him as an outsider; he wants you to hope that Nap and Deb end up together and, to a lesser degree, that Uncle Rico finds love with a severely underdeveloped character whose daughter goes to Preston High.
	www.filmstew.com /Content/DetailsPrinter.asp?ContentID=8928 (1024 words)

	A Movie Parable: Napoleon Dynamite
		The second is a solid screenplay co written by director Jared Hess that absolutely nails its depiction of the "uncool" members of high school life.
		Hess does a great job in coaching his cast to adopt a graceless style that adds to the general and genial geekiness of the film.
		As the film progresses we are pleasantly surprised when Hess allows his super-dork a moment to shine.
	www.christiancritic.com /mov2004/napdyna.asp (575 words)

	Time Out New York [features] (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		Hess, now 24, saw the film not only as an homage to his hometown of Preston, Idaho (Dynamite's address), but also as a tribute to his family, especially his five younger brothers and their distinct worldview.
		Hess is hard at work on his own family these days: He met his wife, Jerusha, 23, at BYU, and she ended up not only the co-writer of and costume designer for Dynamite, but also pregnant with their first child, Elliot, during production.
		Despite having no experience in costume design, Jerusha was undaunted by the task ahead of her when she and her husband began filming last summer.
	www.timeoutny.com /features/451/451.napoleon.html (1085 words)

	CineMe
		Jared Hess lays on the irony pretty thick with the title character of his Napoleon Dynamite: the scrawniest, geekiest mouth-breather ever to disgrace a high school since I set foot on Ukiah High School's campus [number] years ago.
		The inaction centers in Idaho, already one of the least cinematic states in the union and not a locale Hess is inclined to spruce up.
		It doesn't help a bit that Hess tears pages out of Wes Anderson's playbook, from the self-conscious precision of the opening credits (or maybe it's precise self-consciousness -- who cares?) to the narrative centering around a band of loners seeking substance in a vacuum.
	www.cineme.net /2004/070904_napoleon (356 words)

	Napoleon Dynamite (2004) - articles / reviews archive, page 2
		Hess, who learned his trade at Utah's Brigham Young University, is part of a growing group of creative Mormon directors like Richard Dutcher ("God's Army," "Brigham City") and Kurt Hale ("The R.M." and "The Singles Ward").
		Hess grew up in the same small Idaho town where the film was made and the characters and insights are an exaggerated version of the things he observed and the people he knows...
		Hess, his co-writer wife Jerusha Hess and some buddies from Brigham Young University have imagined a screw-loose parody of the small Idaho city where Hess grew up.
	www.ldsfilm.com /ND/NapoleonDynamite02.html (1536 words)

	Cincinnati CityBeat : 07/14/2004 : Hey, Napoleon!
		Napoleon Dynamite, a film Hess co-wrote with his wife Jerusha Hess, is a surprisingly sweet tale about high-school geek Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder), a gangly teenage boy with spongy, strawberry red hair, freckled cheeks and oversized lips; his Latino friend, Pedro (Efren Ramirez); and their struggle for acceptance in a small Idaho town.
		Hess' storytelling is natural and easygoing, and he generates laughs easily.
		Based on the film's Sundance reception, the laughs surrounding Hess' rural Idaho upbringing are bound to be loud and frequent.
	www.citybeat.com /2004-07-14/film2.shtml (887 words)

	DVD RE-RUN INTERVIEW: Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth; Jared Hess Talks About "Napoleon Dynamite"
		Hess, who grew up in Preston himself, is a Utah-based filmmaker who attended the film program at Brigham Young University, where he met his future wife and co-writer Jerusha and also his future star, Jon Heder.
		Hess: As far as aesthetic control goes, your first feature may be one of the few times that you have full creative control of the project that you are doing.
		Hess: He comes from a family of a lot of brothers like I did, so when we began talking about the character, he knew exactly what I was talking about.
	www.indiewire.com /people/people_040609hess.html (1960 words)

	Napoleon Dynamite (2004) - articles / reviews archive, page 5
		The feature-directing debut of Idaho native Jared Hess is a cartoonish paean to its ber-nerd antihero.
		Hess grew up in the same small Idaho town where the film was made and the characters and insights are an exaggerated version of the things he observed and the people he knows, some of whom he is actually related to.
		And so it may be that Hess has passed with flying colors through his own initiation ritual, delivering the sort of mass-marketable crossover product that helps make the indie-film world seem ever less like a creative universe unto itself and more like a lobster tank full of aspiring Hollywood hacks ripe for the boiling.
	www.ldsfilm.com /ND/NapoleonDynamite05.html (11049 words)

	BYU Magazine (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		student Jared L. Hess and stars current student Jon J. Heder, '04, was accepted into the prestigious film festival, where it busted up both critics, who have described it as "gloriously quirky," and audiences, who snatched up all tickets to every showing.
		The unpretentious Hess, who based the comedy in part on his experiences growing up in Preston, says he "about dropped the phone" when he found out the film was accepted into Sundance.
		Jerusha, who doubled as costume designer on the set, was less shocked by the film's initial success.
	magazine.byu.edu /article.tpl?num=15.1-Spr04 (516 words)

	Napoleon Dynamite - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Napoleon Dynamite is an American independent film written and directed by Jared Hess.
		The movie is based on the short film he directed at BYU with Jon Heder, Peluca, which was discovered at the Slamdance Film Festival.
		The retro aspects of the movie have been suggested by some to be a depiction of cultural stagnation, or an homage to similar genre films of the 1980s, such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Napoleon_Dynamite (2265 words)

	BBC World Home Page (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		Jared Hess: "'Napoleon Dynamite' is about a kind of awkward Idaho teenager, who’s trying to figure out who he is. He’s kind of lonely, and the film kind of chronicles his adventures and his life at home and also at school and his relationship with his brother.
		Pedro decides he wants to run for class president against the very popular girl, Summer, who’s running against him, and Napoleon pulls through in the clutch at the end to help him win the election.
		Hess appears to be taking a non-judgemental view of the characters in his story, but his portrayals could be viewed as a patronizing satire poking fun at dumb denizens of a town in rural America.
	www.bbcworld.com /content/talkingmovies_archive_24_2004.asp?pageid=665&co_pageid=4 (428 words)

	Campus Circle
		In the middle of the interview, Hess interrupts to take a call from his dad â” Iâd expect nothing less than a familial bond and slight neurosis from half of the mind (Jerusha Hess, his co-writer wife, is the other half) that gave us what will be this summerâs sleeper hit.
		"It was pretty exciting," Hess says of the news weeklyâs recognition of a film that explores outcast Napoleon, played by newcomer Jon Heder, and his misadventures with his Mexican best friend, chat room-obsessed brother, past-obsessed uncle and neurotic potential romance.
		Humorâs determined by your upbringing, where you grew up, that sort of thing." Hess, the oldest of six boys, says that most of the material in the film came from his brothers, and plenty of moments are almost direct transcripts from conversations heâs had in his own life.
	www.campuscircle.net /review.cfm?r=25 (693 words)

	slant // magazine.com: Film Review - Napoleon Dynamite
		hit at this year's Sundance Film Festival, Napoleon Dynamite earned Jared Hess inexplicable comparisons to Wes Anderson by virtue of the detail-oriented film being produced on a shoestring budget, except its soullessness puts it on par with the worst anti-humanist comedies of all time (Dumb and Dumberer comes immediately to mind).
		Hess contents himself by throwing one random joke after another at the screen (a bully smashes the tater tots Napoleon keeps in his side pocket, the boys at the local chicken farm are served egg juice by the farmers that employ them, Pedro's thugged-out cousins intimidate the honkys with their juiced-up vehicle, and so on).
		To his credit, Hess seems to recognize how rotten to the core his film is, and as such his characters spend much of the time staring comatose at the fourth wall before flies begin to slowly gather around their faces.
	www.slantmagazine.com /film/film_review.asp?ID=1111 (214 words)

	The DVD Journal \| Quick Reviews: Napoleon Dynamite (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		Directed by Jared Hess (who co-wrote the script with his wife Jerusha), the low-budget enterprise is brought to life thanks to a series of detailed, nail-on-the-head performances by their gifted cast, who infuse their broad charicatures with enough reality to make them instantly recognizable.
		Veteran Jon Gries captures the fortysomething single man longing for the glory of his youth, blending assertiveness and smarm while selling plastic dishware sets to the locals of Preston, Idaho.
		Supplements include a chatty, laid back commentary with director Jared Hess, star Jon Heder, and producer Jeremy Coon, four deleted scenes with commentary, and stills.
	www.dvdjournal.com /quickreviews/n/napoleondynamite.q.shtml (534 words)

	"Napoleon Dynamite" - Movie Review by Reel Monkey (Sarah Bonilla) - SMART-POPCORN.com (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		So the very setup for the film is misleading and may cause some confusion with those who are watching it.
		Similarly, his high school associates are counterproductive to the point I feel director Jared Hess was hoping to get across.
		While I would like to say I might be missing something in the film, I think the problem comes in that I am too aware of what the director was trying to do.
	www.smart-popcorn.com /review/456 (708 words)

	SacTicket // Movies // Napoleon Dynamite
		There is a kind of studied stupidity that sometimes passes as humor, and Jared Hess' "Napoleon Dynamite" pushes it as far as it can go.
		Its hero is the kind of nerd other nerds avoid, and the movie is about his steady progress toward complete social unacceptability.
		What remains to be seen is whether Jared Hess has another movie in him -- a real movie, about real people.
	movies.sacticket.com /movies/movie/detail?id=20615 (252 words)

	'Napoleon' falls too much in love with its own nerdiness
		Directed by Jared Hess.Written by Jared Hess and Jerusha Hess.
		Married filmmakers Jared and Jerusha Hess seem to have let their love for Heder's performance cloud their storytelling judgment.
		Spying a pretty girl in the cafeteria, Napoleon asks his pal, "Do you dare me to go talk to her?" The Ramirez character responds with a very mild "sure,'' as if reluctant to follow the teen movie cliche of the deluded fellow geek.
	www.sfgate.com /cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/06/18/DDG6U77BE81.DTL (454 words)

	Bucket Reviews
		Director Jared Hess is the most essential part of the superlative execution of Napoleon Dynamite, however.
		I should also complement film editor Jeremy Coon in this area; after all, it was he who forced Hess to make the necessary, tough cuts in the film.
		From a quality standpoint, Hess’ motion picture has just as much potential as My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Bend it like Beckham did; whether such will be lived up to will soon be seen.
	www.bucketreviews.com /napoleondynamite.html (780 words)

	Napoleon Dynamite (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		By hammering away at this single note, Hess does bludgeon laughs from the most reluctantly audience members.
		Hess' production crew drives home the point that the story takes place in the land of the lost.
		Cory Lory Lorenzen's production design and Jerusha Hess' costumes -- she is also co-writer and wife to the filmmaker -- make clear that nobody here has any sense of style or taste.
	www.hollywoodreporter.com /thr/icopyright_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2075481 (494 words)

	FilmStew.com • Dynamite Ignited at Searchlight
		Studio to distribute comedy from first-time writer-directors Jared and Jerusha Hess.
		The film is a true independent, written and directed by 24-year-old Jared Hess and his wife Jerusha, who is an undergraduate student at Brigham Young University.
		The film was shot in Hess' hometown of Preston, Idaho, using both experienced and first-time actors.
	www.filmstew.com /Content/Article.asp?ContentID=8807 (209 words)

	1073theeagle.com: Event Guide Movie reviews, production notes, and more! - "Napoleon Dynamite"
		NAPOLEON DYNAMITE is written by Jared and his wife, Jerusha Hess, and produced by Jeremy Coon, Chris Wyatt and Sean C. Covel.
		Playing Kip is another BYU classmate of Jared Hess', Aaron Ruell, whose imitations of his younger brother's obsession with time machines and other "high-tech" paraphernalia further inspired the creation of the character.
		Jerusha Hess, 23, is a graduate of Brigham Young University, where she studied English and film.
	1073theeagle.com /common/movies/notes/39919-1-full.html (6791 words)

	Film-Forward Review: [NAPOLEON DYNAMITE]
		An awkward high schooler who whiles away the hours doodling reveries to Pegasus, Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder) lives with his grandmother and his older brother in rural Idaho.
		On the audio commentary track, Hess, a director to keep your eye on, keeps the mood light by punctuating the conversation with tales of his days at Brigham Young University with Napoleon himself, actor Jon Heder.
		After the film’s credits, stay tuned for an additional scene, a wedding that was added to the film in the middle of its theatrical run, capitalizing on the good word-of-mouth it had generated.
	www.film-forward.com /napoleon.html (405 words)

	Napoleon Dynamite (2004) * Movie reviews by Dr. Edwin Jahiel. (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		Written by Jared Hess & his wife Jerusha Hess.
		Hess says that he once encountered in Chicago an old Italian so named).
		In fact, there is a merciless sequence of chickens so horribly, densily packed in wire cages that the SPCA could use it ina protest.
	www.prairienet.org /ejahiel/napoleon_dynamite.htm (476 words)

	Low expectation: Napoleon Dynamite
		Written by Hess and his wife Jerusha, NAPOLEON DYNAMITE brilliantly captures the awkwardness of high school without succumbing to condescension.
		NAPOLEON DYNAMITE marks the directorial debut of 24-year-old Jared Hess, who wrote the film with his 23-year-old wife Jerusha Hess, an undergraduate student at Brigham Young University (BYU).
		NAPOLEON DYNAMITE was shot in Jared Hess' hometown of Preston, Idaho using an amalgamation of experienced and first-time actors.
	www.lowexpectation.com /napoleondynamite.htm (521 words)

	eastbayexpress.com \| Film \| Sa-Weet! \| 2004-06-16 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		It takes place in Preston, Idaho, the hometown of director Hess (who co-wrote the film with his wife Jerusha), and it catalogues, with patience and art, the disappointments and victories (however small) in Napoleon's life.
		Napoleon lives with his brother Kip (Aaron Ruell), who at 32 has no occupation other than searching for his "soul mate" in Internet chat rooms, in the home of their feisty grandmother (Sandy Martin), owner of an equally feisty llama named Tina.
		Hess' revenge-of-the-nerd comedy Napoleon Dynamite (which has made more...
	www.eastbayexpress.com /issues/2004-06-16/movies4.html (918 words)

	PRESTON HIGH
		Though Hess says he and his wife’s collaboration was so tight it’s impossible to give credit for any one character solely to himself or Jerusha, in general he focused on the male characters and she on the female characters.
		While some might wonder if the Hesses are sardonically mocking their own backgrounds, Coon believes the comedy arises entirely from a spirit of deep affection for their characters’ wonderfully weird ways.
		When Jared Hess wrote into his script a five-nippled cow, he was under the impression that they were fairly common.
	movieweb.com /movies/download.php?id=2420&q=notes.htm (6784 words)

	all-encompassingly » napoleon dynamite quotes not enough for idaho legislature:: blog :: conservative politics, ...
		The movie, written and directed by first-time filmmaker Jared Hess and set in his hometown, has been a surprise indie hit.
		Hess’ movie is squeaky clean, with no swearing, no potty humor and no violence.
		Much of the movie is based on Hess’ experiences in Preston, where he often trolled around with a camcorder making amateur movies.
	www.all-encompassingly.com /napoleon-dynamite-quotes-not-enough-for-idaho-legislature (1701 words)

	Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
		When we head to the disc’s supplements, we find an audio commentary with director/co-writer Jared Hess, actor Jon Heder, and producer Jeremy Coon.
		The latter two are the more interesting of the set.
		We can watch the clips with or without commentary from Hess, Heder and Coon.
	www.dvdmg.com /napoleondynamite.shtml (1479 words)

	Empire: Film Reviews, Movie News and Interviews (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		Add a vacantly sagging jaw, half-closed eyes and the gait of an orang-utan, and you have Napoleon Dynamite, an appropriate title character for such a self-consciously bizarro indie comedy.
		Director/co-writer Jared Hess revels in sketching middle-American misfits, and he does it well.
		Still, the vast, lonely Idaho landscapes are beautifully shot and you can’t deny the characters’ indelibility, making this a flawed but credible debut for Hess that should replicate its culty Stateside popularity over here.
	www.empireonline.co.uk /site/incinemas/ReviewInFull.asp?FID=10081 (327 words)

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