Gentlement Broncos... or a review of Sam Rockwell

Gentlemen Broncos. Yeah that's a movie, I guess. Watchable though? Barely. I thought this might have its moments - I mean, I like sci-fi pulp and I liked Flight of the Conchords and Napoleon Dynamite so I thought 'surely it can't be entirely bad, can it?'. And it wasn't entirely bad, but only because Sam Rockwell is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors of the moment and is consistently such a pleasure to watch. From the first time I can remember seeing him, in the Green Mile as Wild Bill, I thought he stole the show every time he was in it. And, although it wasn't a great role, and it was in a fairly shitty movie, I remember him really standing out even in Charlie's Angels. Every time I watch him in something I like him a little bit more and after watching him in Moon recently it solidified for me how great I think he is. He carried the entire film with what seemed like ease, which I realized is how he is in every role I've seen him in. He plays all of his characters so naturally and so smoothly that you wonder if he's even really acting or just acting like himself, but then you compare the roles and realize that surely one man can't be as disgusting and evil as Wild Bill, smooth as Eric Knox, sexually depraved as Victor Mancini and the man certainly isn't a intergalactic fuck-up/goof (which he actually plays in four different movies by my count, all in entirely different ways).



But, I digress. Back to Broncos:

Napoleon Dynamite walked a very fine line and, for some people, it really fell on the side of annoyingly juvenile and absurd. I found it pretty funny but easily saw where these people were coming from. Well Gentleman Broncos jumps over that line and then some. While Napoleon seemed like a slight prod at small-town American living this movie is a full fledge mockery of the dreams and intelligence of small-town Americans. Napoleon could be seen as a hero, in some ways, in his small town of losers but everyone in Broncos is a loser, especially the lead character. He’s a complete pushover and, while we’re supposed to feel like everything works out for him in the end with the publication of his story, even with him getting the girl, you end up feeling like he’s still just a loser. Because his published story is stupid and he never wanted the girl in the first place. And because their first kiss is with a mouth full of his puke. You’re never rooting for him except in the sense that you want things to get better for him just so you don’t have to watch his patheticness anymore. The only good parts of the film are those with Sam Rockwell playing Bronco/Brutus of Benjamin/Chevalier’s story – an intergalactic warrior who has his testicles stolen from him and needs to get them back. And yeah, it’s as funny as it sounds. However, as much as I love Rockwell, there isn’t nearly enough of him to make this movie a worthwhile view, not that any of you were going to bother with it anyways.