Maybe audiences were disillusioned and expected a Napoleon Dynamite 2. Maybe they didn’t get it. Maybe it was a poorly timed release. Maybe it was just too Utah for the rest of the country. The fellas and I got together for what I like to call a TTP Day and watched Gentlemen Broncos! And frankly, we loved it. TTP!
The movie opens with what I think is one of the best movie openings I’ve ever seen. I could watch those sci-fi covers as this song plays forever. It wonderfully sets up the movie and it’s weird Utah style. Maybe this movie is funnier if you’re familiar with the towns and Utah. While the cities are some of the most beautiful, eco-friendly and progressive in the country, the small towns have this feel like the 80s never really left and is merged with the wholesomeness of the 50s. This is also the perfect way to explain the young homeschooled writer character of Ben and his very unusual, creative but sweet mother, Judith - who is also a mature nightgown designer.
Ben is about to go on a trip to Cletus Fest with a bunch of other students and writer hobbyists. It very obviously seems like it’s his first trip away from his Mom which is both freeing and terrifying. She begrudgingly gives him a few bucks ($4) for the trip, which her face says she immediately regrets and sends him on his way.
Sassy French mystery writer Tabitha immediately gets to know Ben and kind of befriends him after ripping him off for “tampon money”, and then goes and buys a mountain of snack foods, which had me dying laughing. She continues treating him like a garbage person until she reads his story, Yeast Wars, featuring the character of Bronco. Every time someone reads Ben’s story, we are treated to a visual portion of it and get to see what Bronco is doing, who is perfectly played by Sam Rockwell.
Tabitha introduces Ben to her travel mate and bestie, low budget director, Lonnie Donaho. They love Yeast Wars and want it to be their next film project.
At Cletus Fest, Ben goes to a panel featuring his hero Dr. Ron Chevalier, played by Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Concords. He is doing a deep Alan Rickman impersonation with a turtleneck and sport coat. He’s that douchey guy. A sci-fi fantasy writer in the vein of Piers Anthony with a set style and formula and perhaps a fading narrow view of ideas. He announces he’s holding a contest for the writer attendees. Submit your novel and if it’s good enough he will edit and release it with personally created artwork for the book. Everyone gasps at the opportunity. Benjamin wiggles in his chair endlessly and eagerly submits Yeast Wars.
Chevalier is going through novel after novel and none are working for him. His agent pushes him to get it done, but then he sees Yeast Wars. He reads it and is totally feeling it. Instead of calling it as the winner, he changes all the proper names and steals the story. Bronco becomes Brutus, also played by a hilarious Sam Rockwell. Brutus is a much more flamboyant version of Bronco but the basic premise of the story is exactly the same.
Meanwhile, Ben goes home and encourages his mom to reach for the stars with her new “collection” of weird old lady nightgowns. She meets and recruites Dusty, played by an incredible Mike White in the most perfectly absurd long curly blonde wig. You can tell, Judith thinks the younger Dusty is an adonis. She steals sideways glances at him and smiles. Trust me, she is the only one doing this. The fellas and I really dug that wig.
Lonnie and Tabitha ask Ben to option Yeast Wars to make as a film. They’ll pay him $500 and asks that he play some characters for them in their current movie, so that they can wrap it up and start filing Yest Wars immediately. They also totally love Dusty’s amazing look and recruit him to be their Bronco in the Yeast Wars film. And now we get to see a third version of Ben’s story! And it’s just as entertaining because it’s soooooo whack!
Ben also feels the lack of quality in his story and gets angry when Lonnie and Tabitha ignore him and his ideas for the film and he just leaves. It isn’t long before he realizes the $500 check wasn’t legit. In fact it’s dated a year from the day. He confronts Tabitha who giggles at him and then puts the moves on him. She drags Ben to her favorite place, a bookstore, and tells him to chill. Then Ben sees a rack for the new Chevalier book with what appears to be Bronco on the cover. He randomly flips open a chapter and starts reading and immediately recognized his story, with some slight differences. He forces Tabitha to read it as well and they realize they’re all screwed.Trying to confront Chevalier does nothing.
Soon a depressed Ben tries to refocus his energy on helping his Mom. She’s designed a new “collection” of night gowns and she wants to try and sell her new pieces to the department store owner of the store she works at. Benjamin drives her to their meeting and she walks in nervous and proud. Low and behold this is just another con. The sleezy owner tries to get Judith to sleep with him and she runs out dishelved and crying. For Ben, this is the last straw, you don’t mess with his Mama! He goes in fully intentioned to beat up the guy, who suddenly pulls out a gun and a wild shootout takes place - complete with mannequins in old lady robes!
The defeated Ben and Judith return home to share their weirdness with Dusty. Ben tells them everything including his drama with Chevalier and his beloved Yeast Wars.Suddenly, Judith unknowingly saves the day, She tells Ben that she remembers Yeast Wars and had the books copyrighted. She had been doing it with his books since he was little, because she thought it would be a nice way to save them and for Ben to pass his talent and gifts on to his own children someday. Ben looks on in astonishment and crookedly smiles knowing he’s got this now!
Now Chevalier’s book is being pulled from shelves and Yeast Wars is the newest coolest best selling novel! He’s at last able to get some real money, not just $500, for his book. And Tabitha seems to be hanging on as a girlfriend now. The movie ends with a large thank you from Ben to his mother. He has produced a fashion show for her new collection and all her crazy designs come to life. The star of the runaway is of course, Dusty. And we get one more adorable long look of Judith yearning for Dusty - her Adonis muse. I'd like to note the irony of how much this fashion show is like the fashion show in Mahogany, which we reviewed a few weeks back. Really the only difference being that in this movie, the joke was intentional.
Again, I’m not sure what happened here or why this second film by Jared Hess was not as well received as Napoleon Dynamite. The only thing I can figure is that this had a very limited theatrical release. But then again, so did Napoleon Dynamite. I think the difference is that Napoleon was an unexpected sleeper hit because of the word of mouth. Gentleman Broncos just didn’t have that same buzz built around it. My guess is by the time of this release, the market had already been flooded with awkward comedies starring awkward leading men. In fact, a whole genre was spawned that started with Jon Heder and created starring vehicles for people like Michael Cera and Jesse Eisenberg. My guess is by the time Broncos came along, no one cared for that style anymore. That even though Hess is an originator, he’d just been copied too many times, and this was just not a compelling enough story to compete anymore, and at the end of the day, the world just wanted a Napoleon sequel or rehash.
Now it’s ten years later and viewing this movie now is a different ball game. I find a fresh original and unusual comedy that is well acted. We even questioned as a group, is this movie too good to review? Because it’s not awesomely bad, it’s awesomely GOOD! If you haven’t seen it and you are like us, who yearn for the weird and original from a good movie, give it a try. It’s silly fun that leaves you wishing to be able to read and watch the film of Yeast Wars!
The Breakdown:
The Best Parts - All the Broncos!
- Hand Massages
- Every character is unique and amazing.
The Worst Parts - We wish there was more!
Ty - 3 Plisskens Matt - 4 Plisskens Jill - 4 Plisskens
No comments:
Post a Comment