Gentlemen Broncos (2009)

This is a strange and quirky comedy that stars Michael Angarano as Benjamin; a nerdy home schooled teen with a talent for writing sci-fi stories.  We are also introduced early on to his oddball mother, played by the always fun Jennifer Coolidge, as she sends him off to a creative writing conference.  Here Benjamin gets a chance to meet his idol and fellow sci-fi author Chevalier.  What no one knows is that Chevalier is a bit down on his luck as his publisher is threatening to drop him.  In an effort to save his career he steals Benjamin’s book, which Benjamin has already sold to some strange independent filmmakers that also attended the creative writing conference.  Eventually Benjamin has to deal with not only the terrible movie, but also the fact that his hero has stolen his work. 

Before I really get into the review for this movie I have to warn everyone that I’m going to do a lot of comparing to Napoleon Dynamite.  I’m a big fan of that movie, so when I heard that the Hess brothers were back with another movie I was pretty excited.  I mean Nacho Libre had to be an aberration, right?  Plus this movie really tries to invoke the feel and mood of Dynamite.  So it is really unavoidable to review this one without comparing it to the other.   

When you are doing a comedy with such strange characters and dry humor you walk a very fine line between genuinely clever and pompous douchebaggery (not in the spell check dictionary, but I’m keeping it damn it!).  And please don’t misunderstand my comment.  I’m sure that the Hess brothers are really nice guys, but this movie comes off as sort of arrogant, almost daring you not to laugh at it.  But it just didn’t work for me at all.  One of the big reasons that most people are fans of Napoleon Dynamite is because we all knew or knew of guys like that.  Even those that hate the movie have that opinion of the character.  I think that is a reflection of how realistic and natural the character comes across.  But in Gentlemen Broncos I don’t get that.  First of all there isn’t a baseline of normalcy to judge the characters against.  Everyone in this movie exists in this strange world so they come off as forced and weird for the sake of being weird.  One of the things that I loved about Napoleon Dynamite is the chance to see how the world reacts to the characters.  One of the most memorable scenes is when Napoleon gets some acceptance for his goofy dance routine from the student body.   Without this connection to the character the rest of the movie just falls flat.  And when it does try to be funny in other ways with some disgusting vomit humor, it doesn’t fit with the rest of the film. 

Now I do want to give the movie some credit.  The cast gives good performances with the exception of Héctor Jiménez, who I have no idea what he was trying to do with the Lonnie character.  The movie is light well and shot nicely.  Though would it kill them to move the camera around a bit?  Still the Hess brothers know how to make a technically solid film.  They also pull off the low budget look of the Lonnie character’s movie pretty nicely as well. 

Bottom line for me is if you are a big fan of Napoleon Dynamite then you might want to rent this one.  But I can’t recommend buying it.  I really don’t see any reason to pop this one back in for a second viewing and I doubt anyone else will either. 

1 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2010 John Shatzer