The Independent Movie That Could, Napoleon Dynamite has built up box office and pop-culture success solely on word of mouth buzz. When I first heard about it three months ago, I scoffed and wondered why anyone would want to watch a movie about an unlovable loser?

I was wrong. Turns out this is one of those hip movies that works from the opening credits on random plates of food and products.

Through the same word of mouth, three co-workers convinced me to see it in a way Roger Ebert never could do, by using dialogue and jokes from the movie in our every day, silly, work conversations. You ladies can weep with Sleepless in Seattle all you want, but when a movie achieves "quotable" status, it's a must-see.

	Outside their natural comfort zone habitat, nerds are easily wooed by baked goods and pastries.

Jon Heder, as the title character, came out of nowhere. He's brilliant as the town outcast, a nerd without a clue. It's not just that he's nerdy, he's the dumb kind, and frankly, he's kind of an asshole. Sure, the poodle haircut doesn't help, neither do the glasses the size of his head, or the expression that looks like he's perpetually tired and annoyed. In fact, I hope there's no one else in the world like him, because for there to be so is a failure of Western civilization.

Napoleon's current events report in class is about the Loch Ness monster, and he spends his free time drawing mythical creatures like Pegasus and a liger, his own creation of the cross-breeding of a lion and tiger. He lives with his older, equally nerdy brother, Kip, who spends all his time in chat rooms on the Internet. They live with their grandmother, who gets hurt and leaves their Uncle Rico with them, a guy who wishes it was still 1982 so he could be a football hero.

In other words, none of them are people you'd actually spend more than two minutes with, without wanting to cut your head off. They're all liars, pretending to be more than they are, and talk incessantly about nit-picky and boring topics concerning their non-existent social lives.

Ha, ha. I know what you're thinking, and no, this is not my autobiography. No, for that you need to look into Groundhog Day.

This is a teen high school comedy unlike any you've ever seen. Writer and director Jared Hess hits all the common themes, from the dance to school elections to the climactic school assembly, but diverges wildly from the high school flicks of years past, mainly because Napoleon, his friend Pedro and girl friend Deb aren't the typical protagonists.

It would be a disservice to call this a parody, however. It's just made from a different point of view, with even cheesier 80s music than other teen movies. There's no plot, and we never reach a state where we feel the "issue" is settled, because there is no issue. This is definitely not a journey for our characters, and there's no destination. Napoleon has no wish to climb the social ladder and I doubt he even considers himself the underdog.

Speaking of the adorable-if-nerdy Deb, she's played by Tina Majorino. I knew I recognized her, but not until I hit IMDB.com did I realize she was the little girl in Waterworld, and Corrina Corrina with Whoopi Goldberg and Ray Liotta. In both those movies, she was the rare positive. She's surrounded by a better script and movie here, even if Napoleon Dynamite was probably made on a budget 1/100th of either of those.

If you've ever seen, say, VH1's "Best Week Ever," you're the kind of person who will recognize the name Haylie Duff. Yes, she's teen diva, Hilary's, older sister, and plays the hottest and most popular girl in school: "Vote for me, and it will be Summer every day of the year!"

Napoleon Dynamite is made up of a string of random events barely connected, each with its own silly comedic payoff. One of my worries was that a movie about such a loser as Napoleon would be full of the type of humor I hate more than any other: humiliating situations in public. Thankfully there were only two moments I began to cringe, but turned out to work rather than embarrass.

By no means am I saying Napoleon Dynamite reaches the pantheon of quotable movies like Ghostbusters and Major League, but with a few years it could be in the second tier with Anchorman and Forrest Gump, and that's a darn good place to be.