Gentlemen Broncos, 2009

I understand this film was a massive flop, and I can see why. That doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy it though - it was right up my street. As a parody / homage of low-budget sci-fi combined with Jared Hess' deeply weird characters (only the lead character is remotely believable as a human being), I can see that this film would only appeal to a certain niche. But I'm sat in that niche, watching this film, and grinning my face off.

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Very sly, very understated, and very, very funny. The mental world (i.e the director & writer) is that of paperback science fiction novels of the 1970s, telegraphed by the great opening titles, even if the story is set in more or less the present day. This is the sort of story that can be merely vapid and patronizing, but it's endlessly kind and generous to the characters and their all-too-evident limitations. And there is an irresistible humor in contrasting the genuine goodness (worldly innocence--the only way to stay good?) against the realities of fame, fortune, and a bit of local sex, too. The young man and his mother are done to perfection by the actors. And as the over-weening, self-adoring older author the youth idolizes (but wakes him up to reality, at least in part), Jemain Clement delivers an absolutely classic comic performance. He allowed himself to really become that person. So "Gentlemen" toys just a bit with elements of the weird and gross but mostly strikes the perfect poker-faced balance between nice inferred Mormonism and an adolescent's bad imaginary movie PLUS an actual locally-made set of bad movies. (A textbook formula for funny: unexpected juxtapositions. This is the first time I have seen this director's work, so maybe this is his way.) For comedy in the modern, slightly off-kilter mode (non gross-out section), I would definitely recommend it. 3.10 ________ By the way, you *can* still leave Movie Notes, but they are harder to find under the new layout. Go to your Friends' thumbnails slide sets of titles, and underneath each mini-poster in your own set there is a tiny purple Leave Note button. (I, too, thought it had been lost and had to search.) I also bemoan the loss of Friends ratings on the review page. I fear that Netfl:x is slowly inching away from the Friends and participatory model of its original business. Can it really be such a burden or expense?

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