Filmmaker Jared Hess clearly was given carte blanche after the runaway success of his debut film, “Napoleon Dynamite.”
The result is “Gentlemen Broncos,” a sophomore effort which couldn’t muster a fraction of “ND’s” theatrical haul – or audience sympathy.
Critics were equally unkind … and with good reason.
The movie offers a singular vision few other writer/directors would dare attempt. It’s numbingly silly and features comic ideas that should have been discarded during the script’s first draft.
Yet it’s still a wonder to watch the film, out now on Blu-ray and DVD, as a testament to a filmmaker willing to follow a singular comic vision all the way to failure.
“Broncos” stars Michael Angarano as Benjamin, a nerdy, home-schooled lad and fledgling science fiction scribe. He attends a writing festival with his classmates one day and meets Ronald Chevalier (Jemaine Clement), a legend in sci-fi circles.
Chevalier, a Bluetooth device permanently affixed to one ear, is a blowhard with a comically exaggerated voice Clement nails. He’s also got a severe case of writer’s block, so he decides to steal the story Michael submits to the festival’s contest, dubbed “Yeast Lord: The Bronco Years,” and pretend it’s his own.
In between we see actor Sam Rockwell playing out the “Bronco” story in various forms, a silly science fiction romp that sounds like something a dweeby high school writer might create. The sequences never rise to the “I know you are, but what am I?” level of comic sophistication.
It’s an original template for a film comedy, no doubt, and Clement is having a blast as the arrogant instructor.
Too bad “Broncos” isn’t all that interested in its own story.
Hess’s willingness to make his main characters look foolish, pathetic … or worse is just as pronounced here as it was in ‘Dynamite.” Granted, these sad sacks function at a slightly higher level than those in “Dynamite,” but they still qualify for our enduring pity.
It’s all about setting up a disquieting mood where the humor, if any lived and breathed here, should flow.
There’s plenty to material here to mock, from arrogant niche authors to the nonsensical scribblings of young authors with no life experience from which to draw. But most of the targets emerge unscathed. The cheap shots are plentiful, like the mouth breathing genre fans and the wannabe video editors who create dreck on demand.
By the time a main character gives an open mouth kiss to someone who just blew chunks, it’s clear Hess has no interest in prescribing to any comedy standards.
The Blu-ray extras include deleted scenes, outtakes, a behind the scenes featurette and mini-docs which serve as teases to the film.
The latter are as uninspired as the feature film, especially Hess offering tips on using a VHS camcorder. A segment featuring Clement, in character, has promises but ends too quickly.
The excised scenes are forgettable, but the making-of doc (“One Nutty Movie”) reveals the cast having a blast making this piffle.
“Gentlemen Broncos” is a small scale disaster, yet its juvenile gags may still inspire a cult following, especially for those who found “Dynamite” far too sophisticated for their own tastes.
(Photo: Sam Rockwell co-stars as the heroic figure at the heart of the quirky new comedy “Gentlemen Broncos,” now available on DVD and Blu-ray. Fox Home Entertainment)
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