For first-time writer-director Jared Hess, success could not have come any easier. With his first feature film, “Napoleon Dynamite” (2004), Hess has created a near-cultural phenomenon. But depending on one’s perspective, the darling of the 2004 Sundance Film Festival either caused one to cheer or be repulsed by the title character. Considered cruel and sophomoric by some, brilliant and hilarious by others, “Napoleon Dynamite” nonetheless won hearts at Sundance, gained widespread distribution in the U.S., and raked in a ton of money (as compared to cost) at the box office.Born and raised in
