Jared and Jerusha Hess have dry senses of humor. They are the masterminds behind the cult favorite Napoleon Dynamite, and they are heading back to the big screen to reproduce its success with Gentleman Broncos. The film, which tells the story of a loner who has his sci-fi novel stolen and published by his favorite author, sounds good on paper. However, the final result doesn't fare quite as expected, leaving much to be desired in all facets of the feature.
At its core, Gentlemen Broncos is really an intermixed story within a story. In one aspect, we get to see the criminal act of plagiarism being preformed, while then being taken inside the book in question to experience the story that is simply too good to not call your own. Michael Angarano leads the pack in the realistic avenue of the film, leaving Sam Rockwell to take charge in the sci-fi adventure known as 'Yeast Lords.' Jennifer Coolidge and Jemaine Clement provide support for Angarano, though Rockwell is left to fend for himself during both his heroic and tranny turns as Bronco.
The story, which is not entirely comparable to Napoleon, does carry some similar characteristics. There is the loner lead, his two just-as-weird friends, the socially unaware parental figure, and the all important dry humor. But more than mimicking that of its predecessor, I felt that Broncos was mocking the cult-hit - pushing the jokes too far, too often, all in hopes of accumulating some sort of extra laugh.
As a whole, the film is lacking in many aspects. The story, lackluster; the characters, dull and uneventful; and the jokes, a bit exaggerated. However, if you can think to take each segment as its own movie, then you do find the occasional bright spot. Snake droppings, a local movie premiere, and a bean pillow are a few of the highlights featured throughout the hour and a half film; however, when venturing past that, there isn't a lot worth mentioning.
Rockwell and Angarano both deliver spectacularly with their respective roles, giving the film enough life to reach its long foreseen ending. Thankfully, the final minutes will have you intrigued as good replaces evil at the top of the bestseller list, showing that in the world of quirky and sarcastic fun, the day to day events of a random life can pave the way to a moralistic conclusion. But then again, if the path to that conclusion isn't very interesting, you will probably have a difficult time keeping the audience around to get there - Lord knows I was ready to hit the backdoor prior to the credits.
