Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Tapawingo review says Jon Heder hasn’t lost a comedic step since Napoleon Dynamite.

Okay, so remember when we all collectively lost our minds over Napoleon Dynamite back in 2004? Well, Jon Heder just rolled up in a tricked-out dune buggy to remind us why we fell for his particular brand of weird in the first place. Tapawingo is here, and honestly, it’s like someone asked, “What if we gave Napoleon Dynamite a job, aged him up a decade, and threw him into a Charles Bronson revenge fantasy?”

Nate Skoog is thirty, lives with his mom (naturally), and his big career achievement is knowing where all the paperclips are kept in the mailroom. This guy’s so far from having his life together, he makes your cousin who’s “taking a gap year” at 28 look like Warren Buffett. But when his boss basically volun-tells him to pick up his kid Oswalt from school, Nate stumbles into his calling: freelance bodyguard. (I’m not making this up.)

Director Dylan K. Narang apparently raided every garage sale from 1975 to 1980 for this production, and I mean that as the highest compliment. The attention to period detail is borderline obsessive. (We’re talking Tab cola cans, Members Only jackets, and enough wood paneling to rebuild a small forest).

Heder hasn’t lost a step. The man commits to being awkward like Daniel Day-Lewis commits to method acting. There’s a scene where he’s trying to look intimidating while holding a crossbow, and I swear he somehow made his entire body apologize for existing while simultaneously trying to seem threatening. It’s genius physical comedy that most actors couldn’t pull off if they practiced in front of a mirror for six months.

Jay Pichardo as Will, Nate’s ride-or-die best friend, deserves special mention. He’s got this energy like he wandered in from a completely different movie—maybe a mumblecore drama about artisanal cheese makers—but somehow it works perfectly against Heder’s stilted delivery. And Sawyer Williams as Oswalt manages to out-awkward Jon Heder, which I didn’t think was scientifically possible.

Beneath all the polyester and peculiarity, there’s a genuine story about finding your groove when everyone else has written you off. It never gets preachy or stops being funny to make its point; it just lets these wonderfully weird characters be themselves while accidentally stumbling into meaning. In a world where most comedies are either trying too hard to be edgy or playing it so safe they forget to include jokes, this film finds a sweet spot. It’s genuinely funny, surprisingly sweet, and committed to its own bizarre wavelength in a way that’s increasingly rare.

Should you see it? If you’ve ever laughed at someone falling up stairs or have fond memories of when answering machines were the height of technology, then absolutely. If you need your comedies slick and your humor sophisticated, maybe give this one a pass. But you’ll be missing out on watching Jon Heder stage what might be the most apologetic action sequence ever filmed, and honestly, that alone is worth the price of admission.

1 Hour 45 Minutes
Not Rated

Does our Tapawingo review make you want to hop into your dune buggy and go to the movies? If so, look for theaters and showtimes at Fandango.com (The movie releases to streaming platforms on December 2, 2025.)

Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Tapawingo review says Jon Heder hasn’t lost a comedic step since Napoleon Dynamite.