EDGE San Francisco

Gentlemen Broncos is a comedy that’s weird, off and simply wrong.

That it comes from the makers of Napoleon Dynamite is just sad. Not that Napoleon Dynamite is anything more than a sturdy cult favorite, but when that little ode to outsiders became an independent hit in 2004, it did seem a signal of fresh talent with an agreeably askew outlook to challenge the mainstream.

While Gentlemen Broncos is not exactly another Napoleon replica, director Jared Hess strained to mine another misfit story in the same vein.

Once more, we get a downtrodden male hero with crazy ambitions. Teenager Benjamin Purvis (Michael Angarano) is a home-schooled social reject who yearns to become a science fiction writer.

Gentlemen Broncos falls into what is now a cliched triumvirate for Hess: Strange young leading man, his chaste romantic interest (Halley Feiffer as Tabitha) and laconic Latino associate Lonnie (Hector Jimenez), who shoots a no-budget adaptation of one of Benjamin’s stories.

The real test of Benjamin’s mettle comes after his literary hero, Ronald Chevalier (Jemaine Clement), swipes the same story.

Clement is the movie’s lone highlight. Though his Chevalier is repugnant and tiresome, at least he’s funny at times and kind of interesting.

Benjamin is mostly a meek kitten, Angarano playing him with almost a medicated aloofness. Feiffer is annoyingly perky, while Jimenez is odious.

The rest of the cast ranges from chafing (Jennifer Coolidge as Benjamin’s mother) to woeful (producer Mike White, a bore as a paternal figure of sorts for Benjamin). Sam Rockwell is insufferable twice over as Benjamin’s sci-fi hero.

There are chuckles early on, but "Gentlemen Broncos" quickly grows saddle-sore as the Hess piles on one grotesquerie after another.

The movie’s a chaotic, infuriating mess.