Last year's indie movie hit Napoleon Dynamite continues to be a force to be reckoned with in popular culture, not to mention my house. How did a teen movie deeply rooted in Mormon culture and set in a rural Idaho community make millions, spawn hundreds of web sites, and change the way kids talk? Clearly, we're in the grip of the liger.

(Main character Napoleon Dynamite says in the movie that his favorite animal is a liger, a cross between a lion and a tiger. Oddly enough, he was not making this up, as Wikipedia explains.)

If you haven't seen it, and there are high school or middle school students in your life, you might want to get hold of the DVD. It could help you understand why you keep hearing odd phrases like, "I see you're drinking 1 percent, is that because you think you're fat?," "Give me some of your tots!", and "Do those chickens have large talons?"

It's set in the surreally isolated town of Preston, Idaho. A lot happens, but it's not too clear what matters. Napoleon is pestered by bullies. His grandmother is hurt in a four-wheeler accident and his uncle Rico, an embittered former college football player, comes to stay. Tina the Llama refuses to eat ham casserole. Napoleon and his friends survive their prom. Napoleon's older brother meets with and marries a woman he first dated online. Pedro runs for student body president.

(In case you think Idaho is not a place that appreciates quirky, the State Legislature unanimously passed a resolution this spring praising the movie because, among other things, "Tater tots figure prominently in this film thus promoting Idaho's most famous export," and "any members of the House of Representatives or the Senate of the Legislature of the State of Idaho who choose to vote "Nay" on this concurrent resolution are "FREAKIN' IDIOTS!" and run the risk of having the "Worst Day of Their Lives!")

It's one of those "love it or hate it" movies. I'm in the "love it" camp, partly because I always enjoy a new twist on the "underdog runs for student body president" plot line. How can Pedro, the quiet Mexican transfer student, beat out the snippy blonde head cheerleader? Through a bravura dance performance by geeky Napoleon in his tattered Moon Boots, of course. (Maybe John Kerry would have benefitted from having his running mate Edwards study the Learn to Dance with Napoleon Dynamite website.)

I also love the way the movie embraces awkwardness and celebrates eccentricity. We worry a lot about kids being too concerned with being popular and going along with the popular crowd or their clique, and I think the affection many kids show for the movie's oddball characters is a sign that they get it, the know that there is something profoundly cool about being true to yourself, even if your self is a hopeless nerd.