Review: Gentlemen Broncos

Jared Hess is a film-maker who is known for his unorthodox style, his debut Napoleon Dynamite was full of quirky characters and a charming spirit. In Nacho Libre he got his first big name as Jack Black played the monk turned mask wrester, although I for one didn't enjoy the film. Now in his third feature, Hess takes on the world of sci-fi fiction as well as satirising low budget film-makers and home school kids. Michael Anganaro is the downbeat Hessian hero, the home-schooled boy who journeys to a sci-fi convention to meet his idol Ronald Chevalier. Cheavlier then ends up stealing and modifying, Anganaro's story while a local film-maker also decides to comission the story as a film. Both versions anger the central character who believes that his work is sacred. The film is very succesful in parodying the nonsensical world of the sci-fi writers and the incredibly inflated egos they have. There is also some humour to be had from the film that is made of The Yeast Lords with its old-school computer graphics and horrible performances.

Where the film falls down is in its lack of likeable, feesible characters and the overuse of facecal matter. The film also has an odd structure, as every so often parts of The Yeast Lords are acted with Sam Rockwell as the lead. There are some nice performances mainly from Anganaro as the likeable hero and Jennifer Coolidge as his overbearing but loving mother. But the star of the show is Flight of The Conchords' Jermaine Clement as the preening and poncy Cheavlier, it proves that he does have a life after the T.V. show. There is a good film in here somewhere but it gets muddled by some sloppy plotting and vile toilet humour.