Gentleman Broncos is the latest film by director Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre), telling the story of 15-year-old Benjamin (Michael Angarano) who aspires to become a published science fiction writer. His strong interest leads him to a weekend writing camp for aspirant home-schooled teenagers, where he meets Tabatha (Halley Feiffer) and Lonnie (Héctor Jiménez), who immediately befriend him. While at the camp, Benjamin decides to submit one of his most recent sci-fi stories for a competition to be judged by one of his heroes, sci-fi writer Dr. Ronald Chevalier (Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement). It is said that the winner of this competition will have his or her book published, but when Benjamin doesn’t get his story returned to him at the end of camp, little does he know that Dr. Chevalier has actually decided to plagiarize his story to compensate for his previous novel, which was refused publication.
Meanwhile, Tabatha and Lonnie also consider Benjamin’s story to be brilliant and decide to make a movie out of it. Benjamin’s eccentric, pajama-selling mother also finds her son’s work to be compelling—so much so that it makes her cry. All of this takes place in rural Utah, where, as Hess points out in an interview at the Park Hyatt, “fashion is less important, and the styles tend to be more functional, rather than current.”
While the story itself is unfolding, Benjamin’s sci-fi creation plays out in on-screen segments that are intertwined with the plot. This, without a doubt, is the film’s biggest mistake. The characters in Benjamin’s story speak total nonsense, and the plotline is completely illogical. (To the film’s credit, these lines were at least spoken with emphasis and meaning.) The subplot is allocated too much of the film’s time, and would have worked far better had it been limited to a few minutes. Essentially, I didn’t need to watch this detailed nonsense to get the point that Benjamin’s story was ridiculous and pretty mediocre. This alone made me want to walk out of the theatre half an hour in.
Hess explains that Benjamin is meant to be depicted as “more of the brooding artist—externally he’s normal, quiet, and polite—but you learn a lot about him by seeing the work he has created.”
First off, Benjamin is as much an artist as I am a plumber. All one learns from watching Benjamin’s story unfold onscreen is that, although he may be brooding, he has no talent whatsoever.
The other characters—Tabatha, Lonnie, the mom (who were all based on people Hess knew growing up)—are jarring to watch. I can see how their enthusiasm is meant to contrast with Benjamin’s expressionless demeanor, but their awkward behaviour makes the film intolerable.
Dr. Chevalier provides the only humour in the film: Clement’s portrayal of the hackneyed, arrogant science fiction writer is seamless, and watching him is a lot of fun.
In addition to Clement’s performance, one moment toward the end of the film stands out for me. Benjamin’s mother reveals a collection of all of the stories that he’s written, now authorized and bound. This pivotal moment offers Benjamin a chance to prove Chevalier’s plagiarism.
Despite a few good moments, Gentlemen Broncos is painful to watch. Says Hess, “When you’re doing something on a lower budget, you’re granted more creative license. We had final cut on this film and we were also able to cast whomever we wanted.”
Maybe it would have been better if someone else had been given that license. Or maybe that wouldn’t have made the difference.
Gentleman Broncos opens in Toronto Nov. 13th.
