Review of Gentlemen Broncos (2009) by Bernard L — 18 Mar 2010

There's a prophetic line hidden in Jared Hess's new film, "Gentleman Broncos," which opens in limited release this Friday:

"People hated your movie," says a main character, "some of them walked out.".

I had the painful experience of watching Gentleman Broncos at a DC screening on Tuesday. Gentleman Broncos is a 90 minute march of superficial characters, and endless, sophomoric jokes that don't further the plot or serve any purpose. There is very little of merit in this film to hold on to. Much (way, way, too much) of the film is spent in the god-awful story-within-a-story fantasy world of "Yeast Lords," which is a barrage of sophomoric jokes and gross-out humor. Attempting the whole, "it's so bad it's funny!" thing-- but it's so over the top and charmless that it wears quickly and doesn't pull of the "funny" part. Snakes pooping on people and plots based on gonads being stolen is not an example of satirical comedic genius. It's the work of a lazy writer crossing their fingers, hoping someone might laugh.

I'll give this movie one star, because it only had one: Jemaine Clement was undoubedly the shining light of this film. Clement is undyingly charismatic on screen, and turns even this weak script into something worth listening to. However, with the serious and underlying issues that riddled the rest of this film, there's no way Jemaine Clement could have saved the show on his own- he's just what kept me from leaving the theater.

The commenter below me compares this film to Wes Anderson, Scorsese, and the Coen Bros-- they must be a close personal friend of Jared Hess, or a PR agent for Fox Searchlight, or maybe we saw different movies. The film that I saw had very little in it to hold on to. As a whole, Gentleman Broncos is charmless and unsatisfying. Avoid, avoid, avoid.