![West Side Story [Remaster] on CD by Original Soundtrack](https://d3fa68hw0m2vcc.cloudfront.net/images/autosize/38254.jpeg?width=228&height=285&format=jpeg "West Side Story [Remaster] on CD by Original Soundtrack")
Composer: John Swihart.
A surprise hit cult film in the summer of 2004, NAPOLEON DYNAMITE presents a story--told in vaguely connected, staccato vignettes--about the exploits of a lanky, maladroit teen. The singular Napoleon wanders through a desolate, surreal Idaho, doing "whatever [he feels] like," be it defiantly telling tall tales to jocks, studying hip-hop dance moves, or helping a newcomer win a student council race.
NAPOLEON DYNAMITE's soundtrack mirrors the movie's charming, quriky unpredictability, bouncing around from sound to sound, mixing in memorable lines from the movie and bites of John Swihart's Esquivel-esque score. While the film exists outside of time, there are clues that the 1980s are going on somewhere near Napoleon 's universe, not least of which are the New Wave classics in the background, from Yaz's "Only You" to Alphaville's "Forever Young," played fittingly at the big dance. However, the soundtrack also moves from the indie-pop of Rogue Wave ("Every Moment") to the retro-dance of Jamiroquai ("Canned Heat") to a Latin ballad from Trio Los Panchos ("Solamente Una Vez"). The gleefully strange NAPOLEON DYNAMITE can't be easily described, and its soundtrack is just as enchantingly obtuse.
