| Gentlemen Broncos | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster | |
| Directed by | Jared Hess |
| Written by |
|
| Produced by |
|
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Munn Powell |
| Edited by | Yuka Ruell |
| Music by | David Wingo |
| Distributed by | Fox Searchlight Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 89 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $10 million[2] |
| Box office | $118,192[2] |
Gentlemen Broncos is a 2009 Americancomedy film written byJared and Jerusha Hess and directed by Jared Hess. The film starsMichael Angarano,Jemaine Clement,Jennifer Coolidge, andSam Rockwell. The film is about a teenage author whose fantasy story is plagiarized by an established author.
Benjamin Purvis lives with hissingle mother Judith, who designs tacky clothes and makes rock-hard popcorn balls. Judith and Benjamin make ends meet by working at a women's retail clothing store. Benjamin spends his spare time writingscience fiction stories, and has recently completedYeast Lords, which centers on a hero named Bronco, modeled after his long-dead father. At various times, portions ofYeast Lords are seen as Benjamin imagines them. Bronco is obliquely masculine, and he valiantly struggles with avillain overyeast production.
While attending a two-day writing camp for aspiringfantasy and science fiction authors, Benjamin attends lectures by his idol, the prolific and pretentious writer Ronald Chevalier. Chevalier announces a contest for the writers, in which the winner's story will be published nationally. After encouragement from fellow camper Tabatha, Benjamin submitsYeast Lords. Tabatha shows the story to her friend Lonnie Donaho who runs an ultra low-budgetvideo production company. Lonnie gives Benjamin a post-dated check for $500 and begins adaptingYeast Lords into a film.
As Chevalier reviews the stories from the campers, he gets a call from his publisher, rejecting his latest manuscript. Panicked, he picks up Benjamin's story, and it sparks his imagination. Chevalier changes Purvis' Bronco into Brutus, an extremely effeminate and comically flamboyant hero, changes the other character names and title, but otherwise leaves the story intact. His publisher loves it, and the novel is rushed into production under the titleBrutus and Balzaak. Portions of Chevalier's version are now seen playing out alongside Benjamin's original vision of the story.
At the local premiere of Donaho's version ofYeast Lords, Benjamin is nauseated to see how badly Donaho has adapted his work, and abruptly leaves the film with Tabatha. They go to a bookstore where he discovers Chevalier'splagiarism after reading a paragraph fromBrutus and Balzaak. Benjamin confronts Chevalier at a localbook signing, and assaults him with some merchandise Chevalier had offered Benjamin in exchange for keeping his theft quiet. Two policeman hustle Benjamin out of the store and he is put in jail.
Judith comes to visit her son in jail to give him his birthday present. She hands him a box ofmanuscripts, all officially bound by theWriters Guild of America. Judith explains that she has been registering all his stories with them since he was seven years old, thinking they would make a nice keepsake for his children.Yeast Lords is one of the registered stories, allowing Chevalier to be exposed as afraud. Copies ofBrutus and Balzaak are unceremoniously dumped from store shelves and replaced withYeast Lords. Benjamin uses some of the money from the book's sales to help Judith put on a successful fashion show for her clothing, modeled by Benjamin's friends.
In December 2007,JoBlo.com reported thatJared and Jerusha Hess had signed withFox Searchlight Pictures to produceGentlemen Broncos, based on aspec script they had written. The deal called for Jared Hess to direct andMike White, who co-wroteNacho Libre with them, to produce. Hess brought Angarano onto the project based on his performance in the filmSnow Angels, which also starred Rockwell.[3] Filming began in March 2008 inUtah.[4] Much of the film was shot inTooele, Utah.[5][6]
In early August 2008, work on an Internetviral marketing began, which had a video introducing the character of Ronald Chevalier.[7] A second video was released in October 2008.[8] A trailer was released on August 19, 2009. Some of the artwork in the opening credits is by fantasy and science fiction artist David Lee Anderson.
Gentlemen Broncos was intended to be released theatrically on October 30, 2009, but due to poor reviews, the national release was pulled from theaters.[9]
The film received mostly negative reviews and holds a 20% rating onRotten Tomatoes based on 79 reviews by critics and the sites consensus reads: "Unselfconsciously juvenile and overwhelmingly quirky,Gentlemen Broncos offers a lot of potty humor but isn't terribly funny".[10]Metacritic gave it a generally unfavorable 28 out of 100 based on 21 reviews.[11]Roger Ebert gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, writing that "Hess invents good characters, but they quickly become lost in a disjointed and meandering story.”[12] However,Richard Brody, writing forThe New Yorker, lauded the film, and in 2018 describedGentlemen Broncos as "a truly great film, with no asterisk whatsoever".[13]
Gentlemen Broncos was released onDVD andBlu-ray on March 2, 2010.[14]
The following songs appear in the film:[15][16]