When analyzing the best movies to recommend to a person based on their previous likes and dislikes, specifically on Netflix, computer analyst Len Bertoni had a difficult time finding anywhere Napoleon Dynamite fit in. He developed a software which improved the matching system Netflix had for what movie to watch next. He began by analyzing patterns of what movies subscribers had previously watched and from there predicted what would be best based on their behavior, yet ran into a problem with one particular movie. Indie cult hit “Napoleon Dynamite” doesn’t seem to fit in to anyone’s pattern!
Bertoni claims it’s nearly impossible to determine how much anyone will like the movie because it’s so different from virtually every other movie. He says the reason for this is because the movie is so weird and polarizing and there are few who would watch it without either loving or hating it, leaving very little room for a middle ground. Even stranger, people who routinely watch the same type of movies still do not agree whether Napoleon Dynamite is good or terrible, meaning whether someone likes it is almost entirely independent of the other movies they watch!