The most fun in a Jack Black movie

Rating: 9/10 (18 June 2006)

Ignacio (Jack Black) is a Friar at a small Catholic Church in Mexico who is responsible for cooking meals for the orphans and priests at the church. But Ignacio's life dream is to become a "luchador," a wrestler in the style of Mexico's greatest wrestler, Lucha Libre. His dreams have been crushed because it is wrong for a Catholic to even watch wrestling! But Ignacio refuses to give up on his dream, and sneaks out during the night and wrestles anyway.
"Nacho Libre" is the funniest Jack Black movie I have ever seen! This is a role that clearly was written and designed for Jack, because no other actor could have performed the role the way that it was. Speaking of designed perfectly, the wrestling scenes are very well choreographed and in fact look very real.
About very real, a quick word on Ana de la Reguera, who played the charming Sister Encarnacion. Her role, to keep the storyline anchored in reality, was perfectly acted, with very positive results: everyone in the movie theater with me felt warm and safe as Sister Encarnacion was trying so hard to keep Ignacio on the straight and narrow.
This film is made very similar to "Napoleon Dynamite," meaning that the movie primarily uses static camera positions and very few multiple angle sequences. I heard complaints from friends about the filming method used in "Napoleon Dynamite," and present the warning: if you didn't like the technical aspects of that movie, you may not like "Nacho Libre."
I'm sure that director Jared Hess expected to make a hit, but I doubt that even Hess was expecting a film that would touch the emotions of as many as he is, because this movie presents much more than a very funny story, but as it's anchored with a good story, I think that it's also the best movie that Jack Black has ever done.
Go Nachoooooooo!