The particular visions of a teenage sci-fi nerd have rarely been as exactly captured as in “Gentlemen Broncos,” a funny little slip of a movie.
This one comes from Jared Hess, the young filmmaker who hit big with his first feature, “Napoleon Dynamite.” That wonderful debut was somehow both wildly exaggerated and exactly true-to-life, whereas this new movie is a little more in la-la land.
The teenager in question is Benjamin (Michael Angarano, a talented under-player), who lives with his mother (Jennifer Coolidge) in a nondescript Utah town. Benjamin, who’s pretty nondescript himself, creates sci-fi fantasies in his notebook.
At a teen writers conference, he makes the mistake of entrusting his new novel, “Yeast Lords,” to his hero, a successful writer named Ronald Chevalier. This role is played by “Flight of the Conchords” comedian Jemaine Clement, who wrings every ounce of oily arrogance he can out of the role.
The esteemed Chevalier steals Benjamin’s idea, which leads the movie into whatever slight plotline it has. Periodically we see two versions of the “Yeast Lords” story; these look different because one version is Benjamin’s, the other is Chevalier’s. Both star Sam Rockwell, in supremely silly form.
Benjamin also gets involved with two friends (Halley Feiffer and Hector Jimenez) who want to make his story into a low-budget, shot-on-video film. This can’t turn out well.
Jared Hess, who wrote the script with his wife, Jerusha Hess, does a nice job of looking at an apparently weird world that actually looks quite a bit like the regular world.
His touch isn’t quite as exact as it was in “Napoleon Dynamite,” and the queasy reliance on scatological humor (there’s maybe one vomiting scene too many) is not entirely welcome. This is a small goof of a film.
The zany costumes and design, and some of the stranger behavior, might seem odd — except that so much in the movie feels as though it’s been directly observed from life. Well, except for the flying deer in the sci-fi sequences.
“Gentlemen Broncos” earned a savage set of reviews in its first week of release, most of them suggesting that Hess has contempt for his characters. I suppose these critics wouldn’t read “Yeast Lords,” either. Jeez.
This criticism is a complete misreading of the movie, which has sympathy for its oddball population — except maybe for Ronald Chevalier. And he doesn’t deserve any.
“Gentlemen Broncos”
A little slip of a comedy from “Napoleon Dynamite” director Jared Hess, about a teenager (Michael Angarano) who wants to be a sci-fi writer but whose manuscript is stolen by a well-known author (Jemaine Clement, in oily form). The scatological moments are a little disconcerting, but the film has sympathy for its cast of bizarre characters.
Rated: PG-13 for subject matter
Showing: Metro
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