Review of Gentlemen Broncos (2009) by Don W — 21 Mar 2010

Let me preface this by saying that I love both "Napoleon Dynamite" and "Nacho Libre". I guess I wouldn't mind Jared Hess' slow morphing into Wes Anderson (now he's even copying credit sequences; this one reeks of "The Royal Tenenbaums"), if he wasn't trying so dang hard and deliberately to do it and Wes Anderson wasn't already Wes Anderson.

Sure, he populates his films with weird, idiosyncratic characters, but weird characters for weirdness own sake makes for a lame comedy. Set in Utah, young writer Benjamin Purvis attends a writers workshop with his sci-fi novella, "4Yeast Lords".

Established sci-fi writer Ronald Chevalier (Jemaine Clement) steals the plot for his next novel from "Yeast Lords", and Purvis is generally used and abused by almost all of those around him, with the exception of his mother, who is a dreamer like Benjamin.

The other half of the film shows the two interpretations of the "Yeast Lords" story, with Sam Rockwell as Bronco (or Brutus, depending on which author's version you're watching), who is sometimes a rugged adventurer missing a testicle and sometimes a bleach-blond tranny, beset by cyclops and flying deer covered in heavy weaponry.

No, I didn't make last part up. Lampooning small town dreamers and sci-fi fan and writers, amongst other things, the film is hard pressed to produce any real laughs. Clement comes closest, but it's just his "Conchords" shtick without the music.

It's excessive for its own sake, with a plot that can't decide what it wants to do so it includes things like blowguns, handmade nightgowns, low-budget indie film, and 'mammary cannons'.

The characters, while some of them may be endearing, are without exception, staggeringly stupid. This film not only lacks general appeal, it would be hard pressed to get the more esoteric crowd, too. Woodchuck sez, "Disappointing.

".