The Concept of Outsider[or Things to do vs Napoleon Dynamite]
This film really spoke to me, it was like watching my life on film in many ways. Obviously due to budget and somewhat jagged acting abilities, plus the idea of an american audience accepting a canadian flick, this film is never going to have any true mass appeal or really be appreciated by the majority as I appreciated it last night. And that seems somewhat predictable, as mac and adam are not a part of that majority of film goers. Watching this with my room mates last night it of course reminded us all of a plethora of other films. Lonesome Jim, the Adventures of Pete and Pete, Bottle Rocket[of course], and we all agreed that a lot of people would watch Things to Do and think of Napoleon Dynamite.
I myself am not a fan of ND. It showed these outsider kids as being really one dimensional and quasi-retarded, just some laughable freaks who god put on earth for comic relief to the regular kids. This rubbed me the wrong way, probably because it made me think of my childhood and realized that is how the rest of the kids in school growing up outside of my friends probably saw me. It also is how all the kids at the party see adam, as this psycho or total nerd or retard. Adam is none of these things (or maybe a little bit of all of them-but thats okay!), these kids never took the time to get to know him -not that they should have, but had they it would have at the very least put their wild speculations to bed. If ND wasn't such a one dimensional film all around would the protagonist have been thinking the same things that adam was, or was he really as dense as portrayed?
This line of thought reminds me of Paul Giamatti[Harvey Pekar]'s reaction to seeing the revenge of the nerds in American Splendor, where he's mad that his nerd friend likes the film because in the end the dog gets the bone, but the entire time its jokes at the nerds expense. Was ND so popular because everyone was laughing at him or were the nerds watching loving it because he comes out on top at the end? I agree with Pekar, but all my nerd friends seem to love ND so what do i know.
Then there's ghost world, which seems almost a precursor to Things to Do. I feel really lucky that GW came out when I was around the age of those characters, and I saw Things to Do at the age of Adam after having nearly identical life experiences right down to the list of, what was for me, things that made me happy as a child[and what would still make me happy now]. The only sore note for me is that I hadn't made Things to Do myself, but it was inspirationally low fi so I guess I still can.
The sound track was of course brilliant, its great when you hear songs you love in a film as opposed to modern pop drudgery. I love Sufjan Stevens, David Pajo and the Unicorns and this is the first film I've heard ANY of their music in which was great.
If anyone has any thoughts on the above feel free to shoot the sh!t, I'd be interested in other opinions.