'Oh my holy crap, surveillance does... I hate those. This is ridiculous, that's the most well guarded yeast factory I've ever seen!'
- A hilarious moment from the film.
This is Jared Hess' third feature film, following Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre. I happened to catch Gentlemen Broncos on television one Sunday afternoon but was unable to finish watching it due to some commitments. But, I did manage to find it a few weeks later and view the second half of the film. I was drawn in immediately during the first viewing and was again during the second. I really admire Hess' unique style. I wouldn't know how to describe it but he seems to be inspired by the 1980s with his use of fashion, music, settings and props. It's totally corny but he makes it really cool.
Gentlemen Broncos tells the story of Benjamin, a shy teenager who writes sci-fi novels and lives with his strange mother who is a fashion designer of hideous sleepwear. When he attends a writers convention he meets his favourite author, Chevalier who turns out to be a bit of an arrogant asshole.
Benjamin is played by my new favourite actor, Michael Angarano (mentioned in Ceremony review) who is perfect as the insecure Benjamin. Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) is hilarious as Chevalier putting on an amazing voice as the rude sci-fi author.
Hess' style is amazing in this film and the characters are quirky and unique (Hector Jimenez as Lonnie is a standout, his facial expressions are hilarious), however, the story was somewhat lacking. The film starts out really great, but kind of loses it an hour in. It must be hard for Hess to live up to his debut feature, which became insanely popular worldwide and had us all saying, 'Your mum goes to college,' and so on. Unfortunately Gentlemen Broncos doesn't quite have the same appeal as Napoleon Dynamite but it still maintains the quirkiness minus the memorable quotable lines.
Look I'm going to give this a good rating because I did find it rather entertaining and fairly amusing. It just probably isn't the best thing to come from Hess (which is forgivable of course.)
Rating: 3.5/5
