Ep. # 96 - The BEST of Jared Hess: Napoleon Dynamite & Gentlemen Broncos

This week on Fabulous Film & Friends, we’re going to scale down and take a look at the freakin’ sweet indie filmmaking skills of director Jared Hess with his 2004 quirky sleeper hit, Napoleon Dynamite starring Jon Heder, John Gries, Aaron Ruell, Efron Ramirez, Tina Majorino, Haylie Duff, Trevor Snarr, Shondrella Avery, and Diedrich Bader alongside the even quirkier and sleepier box office bomb, Gentlemen Broncos, made in 2009 and starring Michael Angarano, Jermaine Clement, Jennifer Coolidge, Halley Feiffer, Hectór Jiménez, Mike White and Sam Rockwell. 

This week I have a panel of awesome wizards from Idaho and Utah in David Johnson, DDS and Burton along with Texas fantasy author and hypnotherapist Joe Field, all three of whom are fully qualified to comment on the veracity and value of these two unconventional productions. 

Before we enter a bizarro universe of dry lips, brown suits with snowboots, and retro-primitive laser battles against rocket launching chordate, the synopses: 

In Napoleon Dynamite an awkward, misunderstood but spirited high schooler hits back at the status quo in small town Preston Idaho, drawing fantastic creatures, dancing to funky music and standing by Pedro Sanchez, a new student who bravely runs for class president. 

Gentlemen Broncos follows Benjamin Purvis, a young, homeschooled writer whose sci-fi story Yeast Lords is plagiarized by Dr. Ronald Chevalier, a washed-up author teaching seminars for high school students. 

Do these films stand as classics or just offbeat oddities? 

Find out! 

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