Movie Review: Gentlemen Broncos

I've come to the conclusion that movie critics just don't get Jared and Jerusha Hess. Napoleon Dynamite sits at 71% on the Tomatometer. Astonishingly, Nacho Libre is at just 40%. Read my review of Nacho Libre to find out why it is actually a contender for the best comedy of the first decade of the new millennium. Finally, Gentlemen Broncos has just an 18% rating over there at Rotten Tomatoes. Yep, movie critics just don't get the Hess movies. Either that, or most movie critics really are as stupid as most people think.

Gentlemen Broncos is the Hess' follow-up to Nacho Libre and chances are you've never even heard of it, much less seen it. Clearly, the companies involved in producing and distributing this beyond quirky movie had absolutely no idea how to package it into a nice little parcel succinctly and completely described in one sentence that could be compared to movies that came before. The fact is that you have never seen a movie like Gentlemen Broncos before and, for the most part, that is an exceptionally good thing.

The plot of Gentlemen Broncos in a single sentence goes thusly: a teenage science fiction writer has his story stolen by a successful SF author who has run dry of ideas. That sentence only barely begins to scratch the surface of the events that take place before your increasingly unbelieving eyes.

Michael Angarano plays Benjamin, the teen kid in question. His life with his widowed mom is less than extraordinary and he escapes by writing science fiction stories that are almost as weird as those of Thomas Disch. He is eager to attend a writing camp where his favorite author will be handing out advice and reading writing samples. Jermaine Clement plays the author named Chevalier in a performance so deadly on target that you cannot help but imagine someone involved with this project experienced a most similar situation. Yes, Chevalier does steal Benjamin's story and makes it into his own with exceptionally few changes.

At the same time that the meat of the plot is unfolding, Gentlemen Broncos introduces us to Tabatha and Lonnie, two wannabe filmmakers who seek to exploit every potential gain at their disposal. They buy the rights to Benjamin's story "Yeast Lords" and transform it into a movie that makes Plan 9 From Outer Space look like Gone with the Wind. Lonnie is played by Hector Jimenez, the actor who played Jack Black's wresting partner in Nacho Libre.

At the same time, Benjamin's mom has grabbed her son a guardian angel from a local church to look over him. The first thing the angel does is teach Benjamin how to shoot a blow dart. The angel also becomes one of the stars of Tabatha and Lonnie's version of "Yeast Lords." Benjamin's mom, meanwhile, desperately wants to become a fashion designer but lacks one single necessary element: the fame that is required to sell extraordinarily ugly clothing as expensive haute couture to a bunch of clueless rich gals.

At the same time, Benjamin's version of "Yeast Lords" occasionally comes to life with Sam Rockwell as his lead character. Rockwell is never less than interesting and in Gentlemen Broncos he gets to play two utterly bizarre versions of the same character as we are also made privy to the movie taking place inside Chevalier's head courtesy of his rewrite of Benjamin's original story.

You can probably see by this point that Gentlemen Broncos simply had no place at most local cineplexes. And that's even before I mention the deer cannons, the snake with bowel control problems, Chevalier's obsession with mammary weapons, the prominence of stolen gonads in "Yeast Lords" and the yeast vomit weapon exhibited by Rockwell. Yep, Gentlemen Broncos must have been one tough sell in the marketing department.

The film was pulled from release following lousy reviews. Which is just more evidence that movie critics are just as obsessed with cookie cutter stories as the mass audiences they attack for flocking to cookie cutter stories. Gentlemen Broncos is no Napoleon Dynamite and it's most definitely not a Nacho Libre. What this movie is, when all is said and done, is a tribute to all the strange movies that were not appreciated in their own time. As with their two previous efforts, the Hess' refrain from substituting profanity for actual dialogue. A big difference here is that Gentlemen Broncos is more raunchy, racy and less family friendly than those two earlier films. But the raunch and gross out humor are kept within limits and the film manages to maintain a PG13 rating with aplomb.

The highlight of Gentlemen Broncos is the performance of Jermaine Clement. If you saw Eagle v. Shark you will remember Clement as Jarrod, the not particularly likable eagle of the movie. Eagle v. Shark has a definite Napoleon Dynamite feel to it, but without substituting "flippin" for the F word. What Clement does in Gentlemen Broncos is give us a character so incredibly self absorbed and assured of his own genius that you find yourself laughing at him, pitying him and despising him all at the same time. Clement's deep voice is the very definition of unctuous. His opening sequence when he focuses on the cover art he has created for his books rather than the books themselves is a masterpiece of acting. This is followed up rather quickly by a sequence inside the writing camp classroom where he gives a lesson in the most important part of writing science fiction: coming up with the appropriate names for your characters. Clement is a total riot and his performance alone is worth your time.

Michael Angarano is best known for his back to back performances in Lords of Dogtown and Sky High. He infuses the role of Benjamin with a desperation that should not embody any teenager. Benjamin's life is rough and all around him are people eager to take advantage of his natural goodness. He's an outsider, but he's not just a regurgitation of Napoleon. The world has already succeeded in beating him down to the point where the realization that Chevalier has stolen his story and produced a best selling novel can only result in one of two routes. Fortunately, for the sake of comedy, Benjamin takes the route we hope for.

And then, in the end, something a little miraculous and very emotionally satisfying happens. But in order to find out what that something is, you'll have to put up with a movie that spits in the face of conventional wisdom and the all too easy decision to kick imagination to the curb in pursuit of box office gold.