Gentlemen Broncos

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Teeming with socially awkward misfits, Gentlemen Broncos is not without its absurdist charms, although Hess (who co-scripted with his wife, Jerusha) pushes the envelope in ways it doesn't need pushing.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

The best part is Jemaine Clement as Benjamin’s grandiose genre hero, Dr. Ronald Chevalier. Even if you love him on "Flight of the Conchords," you’ll be unprepared for his genius--and charisma.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

As the struggle toward something new and different overwhelms the film, it becomes less and less human, less and less funny and less and less worth the effort to meet it on its own terms.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The director, Jared Hess, who made "Napoleon Dynamite," a film I admit I didn't get, has made a film I don't even begin to get.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Fitfully amusing.

Time Out New York David Fear

It’s unfair to blame Hess solely for condescension comedy’s bad aftertaste--he’s not the only perpetrator--but his particular brand is the most graceless.

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

Has little to offer besides unrelenting strangeness.

Variety Peter Debruge

Napoleon Dynamite seems perfectly well-adjusted (not to mention downright charismatic) compared to homeschooled mama's boy Benjamin Purvis in Gentlemen Broncos, the latest oddball character portrait from one-trick helmer Jared Hess.

USA Today Claudia Puig

If you didn't know otherwise, you'd swear that Gentlemen Broncos was made by a disaffected high school student – and not a particularly talented one.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

A comedy that can’t even admit to its own overwhelming sense of disgust.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Sean O'Neal

Crammed with so much deliberate tackiness that it borders on exhausting self-parody.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Timing, good jokes and characters you can laugh with and at are mostly missing from Gentlemen Broncos.

Los Angeles Times Gary Goldstein

Satire aside, what the oddball folks here never feel is real, despite the filmmakers' claims of autobiographical parallels.

Village Voice Scott Foundas

Hess deserves credit, I suppose, for so effectively channeling his inner seven-year-old. Personally, I preferred spending two hours in the company of Spike Jonze's.

Chicago Reader Cliff Doerksen

A witless whack at sci-fi fanboys.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Setting out to make a cult movie is almost as strange as setting out to make a camp movie. Or setting out to make a movie that's so bad it's good. If you know you're doing it, you're not really doing it.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

There's a lesson behind Gentlemen Broncos , the new film from director Jared Hess: Don't try to mock above your talent level.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Yep, Hess wrote and directed "Dynamite," and here's proof we shouldn't have rewarded him. The hollow "Broncos" is even more cruelly disdainful, designed primarily to scorn the pathetic lives within.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The audience may have bought the act in "Napoleon Dynamite." But this time, the act bombs.

Washington Post John Anderson

What Michael Bay did for the Hollywood blockbuster with his second "Transformers" movie, Jared Hess has now done for the low-budget indie with Gentlemen Broncos -- namely, stain an entire genre with a sense of soulless calculation.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

White is cast in this film as a “guardian angel” and adds another level of painful homosexual confusion and stereotyping to the film. Ultimately, all the chafing caused by Gentlemen Broncos is likely to leave you saddlesore.