Gentlemen Broncos (2009)

Yeast is the word, is the word that you heard It's got groove, it's got meaning!

For any aspiring storyteller, especially those who like fantasy and science fiction, there are no two words more terrifying than Maladaptive Daydreaming.

Maladaptive Daydreaming is a mental disorder coined in 2002 by clinical psychology professor, Eli Somer.

The disorder’s clinical, unpoetic name is no accident.

It’s meant to be a dismissive description of those who spend their lives immersed in fantasy worlds, rationalized by delusions that they will be the next, J.K. Rowling or George R. R. Martin.

Every unwritten fantasy story is in terrible danger of becoming a Maladaptive Daydream. This is why the heroes of fantasy epics are never the protagonists.

The heroes are the authors who painfully rip these stories from their brains and transpose them into finished novels, screenplays and comic books!

The villains are never characters in the story either. They are those who discourage the authors and in the very worst cases, they are those who steal their work!

Gentlemen Broncos is a movie about a hero facing the very worst kind of villain.

The hero is Benjamin Purvis (Michael Angarano), a shy young man, who wants to give life to “Yeast Lords” the Space Opera/Maladaptive Daydream he’s been working on since childhood. Angarano gives Benjamin the wounded, myopic stare of someone perpetually overwhelmed and overstimulated, but still determined to thrive.

The villain is Dr. Ronald Chevalier (Jermaine Clement), a best selling Science Fiction novelist who decides to deal with his financial problems and writer’s block by stealing Benjamin’s work. Clement gives Chevalier a mellifluous voice that is part Montalbán-Khan, part Curry-Frank N Furter and all pompous, privileged plagiarist.

How does it all play out?

The Plot: Benjamin Purvis has enrolled in a week long science fiction writing camp run by his idol, Dr. Ronald Chevalier

As he climbs aboard the chartered bus, Benjamin drifts into a daydream where actors perform the sci-fi epic he wants to write, “Yeast Lords”.

The protagonist of Yeast Lords is “Bronco”, a hirsute, virile, muscle thewed space warrior who cannot be enslaved, controlled or coerced by anyone! Bronco is played by Sam Rockwell.

Benjamin’s daydream is so vivid he barely notices that he’s been befriended by Lonnie (Héctor Jiménez) and Tabitha (Halley Feiffer).

They help Benjamin unpack, and then help themselves to his grocery money. Before the end of the day, Tabitha tells Benjamin she’s his girlfriend. She tells him this the way you might tell someone they have food caught in their teeth. Benjamin seems to have no opinion on the matter, he can think of nothing but the upcoming workshop with Dr. Chevalier.

When that workshop comes, Chevalier wastes no time on pleasantries. He tells the aspiring writers their ideas are pedestrian and insists they rename all characters using a weird suffix chart he’s invented.

The aspiring writers adore being treated this way, especially Benjamin, who would never think Chevalier capable of stealing Yeast Lords.

But steal it he does and soon there are frequent transitions into two different variants of the Yeast epic.

We continue to see Benjamin’s daydream with the macho Bronco.

But we also see Chevalier’s slightly modified version. Plot details and supporting characters remain the same, but Bronco is replaced by a platinum blonde, effete, aquarian warrior named Brutus.

Brutus is also played by Sam Rockwell and played so well that I initially thought he was a different actor.¹

Soon, Yeast Lords is published under Chevalier’s name and becomes an international hit. Benjamin doesn’t notice because he’s too involved with the production of an amateur Yeast Lords movie produced by Halley and directed by Lonnie.

Budgetary limitations and creative differences with his producer/girlfriend stress Benjamin out. But of course, the true stress comes when he discovers Chevalier’s theft and must fight for his rightful recognition and IP ownership.

Gentlemen Broncos was a huge bomb on release, failing to earn back even ten percent of its budget.

This was a surprise, because the creative team, Jerusha and Jared Hess had an impressive track record of making hits out of quirky low budget comedies, notably their debut feature, Napoleon Dynamite.

I like Napoleon Dynamite, but it’s a much simpler story about hijinks triggered by a grandmother’s dune buggy accident.

By contrast, Gentlemen Broncos is a refreshingly thorough, unromantic view of the creative process.

The “Yeast Lords” scenes made me contemplate how ridiculous most sci-fi franchises must have been in the early draft stages, and just how important it is to name your McGuffins wisely.

Can you imagine planet Arrakis, center of the intergalactic Yeast trade or Obi Wan Kenobi warning Luke Skywalker about the dark side of the Yeast?

The movie is also filled with characters who initially seem to be disposable comic relief but actually play pivotal roles in Benjamin’s battle with Chevalier.

There’s Dusty (Mike White), a laconic, aging metalhead assigned by a church to be “Guardian Angel” to fatherless Benjamin. Dusty initially provides nothing but FUBAR style humor and proof that snakes are not ideal pets. But when Dusty is cast as “Bronco” in the amateur Yeast Lords film, he embraces the material and becomes the mentor Benjamin needs to believe in his work.

There’s also Judith (Jennifer Coolidge), Benjamin’s fragile mother who has a home full of Jesus paintings that look like Barry Gibb. For much of the movie it seems like Judith is only there so that Benjamin can defy her and achieve independence. But in the final showdown between Benjamin and Chevalier, it is Judith who makes the most important move.

There’s some great use of music too, especially during the title credits which features “In the Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus)” the 1969 folk single from one-hit-wonders Zager & Evans.

That irredeemably corny song, which attempts to chronicle the next 10,000 years of human history is the most so-bad-it’s-good-but-only-in-small-doses-because-it’s-objectively-terrible song of all time and it is the ideal anthem for movie about plagiarism and Yeast Lords.² .

In the end, the movie’s poor box office can be blamed on 2009, a year of mainly brainless, flashy event-films mainly assembled during the 2008 writer’s strike. It was a difficult year for smart cinema and a movie-within-a-movie satire of authorship probably never stood a chance.

The failure of Gentlemen Broncos greatly diminished the output of Jerusha and Jared Hess, but both were able to revive their careers.

Jared is actually directing the upcoming Minecraft movie, which I had zero interest in seeing until I learned he was involved.

There are certainly reasons to keep expectations low³, but I’m cautiously optimistic that Jared Hess has the right sense of humor and creative mindset to adapt the most popular videogame of all time. A videogame where the end goal is unique to every player.

But however good or bad that Minecraft movie turns out, it will not have the musk of Bronco or the mystique of Brutus.

Those are both unique to Gentlemen Broncos, a movie about a maladaptive daydream about maladaptive daydreaming that is very much worth 89 minutes of your time.

The Tea: If you want tea that has an otherworldly look, an otherworldly taste and a high yeast content, the best choice is Strawberry Basil Kombucha, prepared at room temperature but served over ice as cold as Dr. Chevalier!

The Snack: If you are Team Bronco, show those Surveillance Does who’s boss by enjoying a heaping plate of venison tenderloin. Chew with your mouth open to ensure you finish the meal with a beard full of intimidating deer chunks. Team Brutus should indulge in some vegan popcorn. Replace the butter with a yellow gravy made from nutritional yeast flakes (be warned, that is a real thing)!

1. I thought he was Christopher Guest! That’s how good Sam Rockwell is in this movie

2. Except for The Court of the Crimson King of course, but Children of Men already took that one.

3. The Minecraft movie has six credited screenwriters!