Napoleon Dynamite
In a promising filmmaking debut, young BYU grad Jared Hess informs this indie tale of an aggressively nerdy backwater teen's foibles with the bittersweet dimensions of the director's own small-town upbringing, making it the dry comic hit of Sundance. Its soundtrack picks up on that earnest awkwardness via dollops of '80s new wave, both underexposed (Yaz's "Only You", Alphaville's "Forever Young") and otherwise (Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy," a faithful cover of "Time After Time" by Sparklemotion), as well as moodier contemporary cuts by Rogue Wave (a live take on "Every Moment"), Figurine in full synth-pop revivalist mode, and the nuevo-soul of Jamiroquai and Money Mark. Interspersed with a generous sampling of dialogue snippets, John Swihart's shrewd, intimate underscore runs the gamut from "The A-Team Theme" to geek-friendly exotica and nervous cocktail jazz, stitching the score's disparate parts into a memorably quirky whole.--Jerry McCulley