“Gentlemen Broncos” stars Jemaine Clement as an author who steals a young student’s manuscript for a fantasy novel.
BASHING “Gentlemen Broncos” feels like taking a bat to a bag full of kittens, so I’ll try to be gentle about the latest geekfest from the husband-and-wife team that gave us “Napoleon Dynamite” and “Nacho Libre.”
To start with the positive, Jemaine Clement of “Flight of the Conchords” is very funny — mostly — as Dr. Ronald Chevalier, a pompous, famous writer of fantasy novels whose latest effort is turned down by his publisher for being out of touch with his teenage market.
A panicked Dr. Chevalier simply picks up the manuscript of “Yeast Lords: The Bronco Years,” submitted to him by high school student Benjamin Purvis (Michael Angarano) for a competition.
The good doctor changes character names and the title (to “The Chronicles of Brutus and Balzaak”) before shipping it off to the delighted publisher as his own work.
Benjamin is blissfully unaware of this, having sold “Yeast Lords” to the sexually ambiguous filmmaker/performer Lonnie (Hector Jimenez of “Nacho Libre”) for a no-budget VHS adaptation that ramps up the already blatant homoeroticicm of Benjamin’s story.
While “Gentlemen Broncos” is not without its charms — Sam Rockwell plays Benjamin’s hero, who loses his gonads and prances around in pink latex amid low-tech special effects — it tests your patience even at 90 minutes.
The film centers around the ultra-passive Benjamin, who makes Napoleon Dynamite look like a bundle of energy by comparison.
Filmmakers Jared and Jerusha Hess’ endless ridicule of Benjamin and his single mom (Jennifer Coolidge) — who hand-crafts hideous rayon nightgowns and giant popcorn balls in their geodesic-dome home — seems a lot less than affectionate.
“Gentlemen Broncos” is fitfully amusing, especially when Benjamin finally gathers up enough energy to confront Dr. Chevalier.
But mostly it’s content to coast along on quirk. Mike White plays Benjamin’s beyond-weird “guardian angel,” who fondles a white snake in one scene.
Amateur psychologists will have a field day with the endless scene in which Benjamin’s chaste love interest (Halley Feiffer) offers him a generous squirt from a giant bottle of hand lotion.