Short Take: Delightfully absurd, but probably not for everyone

Director: Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre)

Screenwriters: Jared Hess and Jerusha Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre)

Cast: Michael Angarano (Sky High), Jennifer Coolidge (A Mighty Wind), Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Concords), Sam Rockwell (Choke)

Length: 1h 30m

Synopsis: A teenage boy attends a creative writing camp and submits his sci-fi story in a contest only to have it stolen by one of the judges. Surprisingly, that story is then published and becomes a best-seller, and the boy must try to expose the judge for his plagiarism.

Analysis: Knowing that this film was written by the Hesses, and directed by Jared Hess, should give you a good idea about what to expect. The two’s absurdist brand of humor went far to make Napoleon Dynamite one of the more successful independent films of this decade, but the flopping of Nacho Libre suggested to some critics that many had grown tired with this particular style. Whether through optimistic determination or plain stubbornness, Gentlemen Broncos continues in this same silly fashion. Fans of the Hess duo’s work will probably be pleased, and detractors will probably continue being unenthused.

One thing that separates the kind of absurdist humor found in Gentlemen Broncos (and by extension Dynamite and Libre) from the kind found in, say, Monty Python material or the Naked Gun films is its incredibly dry tone. With absurdity mixed with slapstick it’s very easy to spot punch lines because most of them have obvious visual queues, and thus they stick out like a sore thumb. However dry humor by its nature is far more subdued and subtle than slapstick, and so people who are used to being provided with obvious (and some might say spoon-fed) queues for punch lines might react to this dry absurdity with hesitation. And well, in comedy everyone knows that timing is everything, so if one is hesitating on when they feel they should laugh the right moment has likely already passed and so the only reaction to the joke that feels appropriate is no reaction at all. Some interpret this confused reception as a disliking for what’s on screen, but really it’s just a matter of not being acclimated to the film’s brand of humor.

Many critics have pointed out that the plot of the film is unoriginal, and this is certainly true. But how much this should affect the reception of the film as a whole is an evaluative judgment. One can argue that, for a comedy, its narrative need not be terribly original – or even sensible – in order to help support or augment its humor. The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive depending on the film, but they are separate features. In the case of Gentlemen Broncos, the unoriginality of the plot has no affect on its competency in comic delivery. However, even with this being the case, personal taste determines the value of the plot/humor collaboration. So, depending on your preferences, you may find Broncos to be underwhelming or rather humorous.

Note: There is a short clip following the credits.

Rating: 7.5

2 Responses to “Review – Gentlemen Broncos”