Gentlemen Broncos (2009): Underrated Classic or Irredeemable Garbage?

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Ah, Gentlemen Broncos, a title I’m still not sure I completely understand. It’s also a film that managed to create a rarity for our podcast: an episode where Olivia and I STAUNCHLY disagree.

Well, “staunchly” might be a little strong. Olivia is the staunchest of us in her abject hatred for this movie. It’s the kind of contempt I thought would only be reserved for the trashiest of trash, the My Boss’s Daughter-s of the world. Here’s the story:

Olivia recently visited a tattoo parlor (they sketched and outlined during the session, which took a handful of hours). While waiting to get needles stuck into her, two giant screens on one wall were playing this movie, Gentlemen Broncos. She had nothing better to do, and she knew Jemaine Clement was in it, so she watched and live-texted me her ever-growing rage. She said she enjoyed the beginning well enough and thought the design was good, but the sheer stupidity of the film overwhelmed her—so much so that, when I asked if we should review it for the podcast, she responded, “Are you sure you want to do that to yourself?”

I was also encouraged to watch the movie inebriated, which was a luxury Olivia didn’t have, so I’m willing to base some of our dissonance on that. But I was thoroughly surprised to find that I actually thoroughly enjoyed Gentlemen Broncos. Or rather, I enjoyed most of it.

Sounds like a good segue.

So it is!

Olivia hated the immaturity of the movie. The entire middle section relies on gross-out humor to a jarring and, in my opinion, unnecessary extent—especially given how mild the first and last sections are. It’s like the directors couldn’t decide between making another Napoleon Dynamite-esque subtle comedy and just filming one long shot of a guy farting for two hours. So instead, they split the difference right down the middle. What results is a disjointed and meandering experience that occasionally nails the satire that seems to be its goal but consistently undercuts its wit with, for instance, blow darts dipped in human feces and rat poison. Why? Poop funny, that’s why!

I think I was willing to overlook the gross bits and immaturity solely because I was incredibly unsober. But I had my wits about me enough to know that there were sizable chunks of this movie that I simply didn’t like sitting through. The saving grace of this movie’s B-plot (an amateur short film based on the protagonist’s novella) is that I was amused by some similarities to my own experiences making short films in college. The scenes themselves were gratuitously uncomfortable and needlessly gross. For someone who was stone-cold sober, sitting in a loud tattoo parlor for hours with nothing to do, I can absolutely see why it would all be insufferable. 

It doesn’t sound like you liked it all that much.

That’s the thing! Olivia hated this movie so much that she saw no redeeming qualities (aside from, perhaps, Jemaine Clement’s unbeatable performance as an egomaniacal fantasy author). I relished the redeeming qualities, but I also enjoy this genre. Napoleon Dynamite was critically acclaimed, but it’s absolutely not everyone’s cup of tea. In fact, I hated it when I was growing up! I thought it was boring and humorless, when in reality it was just a dry, Midwest-niche humor I had to grow to appreciate. 

Gentlemen Broncos fills a similar Midwestern niche and, largely, succeeds satirically more thoroughly than its more famous counterpart. That is to say, I think Napoleon is more consistent, whereas Broncos is funnier when it’s trying to be. I thoroughly enjoyed everything that centered around poking clever fun at the surprisingly nuanced characters (except Lonnie… we don’t talk about Lonnie). Everyone in Jared and Jerusha Hess’ films are so delightfully weird, but somehow they feel like people I’ve met (EXCEPT LONNIE). I get the feeling that the Hesses based these characters on people they knew—they all feel so familiarly quirky. And, as I mentioned earlier, they make some genuinely clever jabs at the SciFi and Fantasy genres that made me chuckle.

Which is why it’s so bizarre that they decided to veer so off-course from what they do best! The bodily-fluid-based humor wasn’t just gross, it felt entirely out of place. I couldn’t thoroughly enjoy the writing gems because every other scene was undercut by a *insert bodily function here* joke. It felt like I was being gaslighted by the writing itself—it had great ideas, some of which were executed really well, but the script inexplicably follows those ideas up by insulting its audience at every other turn.

Like I said, I was high, so I can see how that would make me more forgiving of this movie’s many faults. And I can certainly see how sitting in an uncomfortable chair for hours while being repeatedly assaulted by poop/vomit/etc. jokes could be… alienating. But I stand by my stance! Midnight Broncos is a misguided and somewhat disappointing version of a movie that could have been brilliant. Instead, it was just enjoyable-ish. To me. Not Olivia. 

With all that said, we’re interested in hearing your thoughts about this one! If you saw Gentlemen Broncos (for this episode or otherwise), what did you think? Another poll will be opening on Twitter and Instagram soon, so keep an eye out!