Aug 18-24 indie comix week: When I was a kid, I used to read Mad Magazine and Cracked, so when I got a little older, it didn’t take much convincing to pick up Eightball and Hate. I’m an OG in the “complaining about superheroes” game, and my scars were anointed on the Comics Journal message board!

Why did I wait so long to watch this? Why was I able to buy it at a dollar store? Why isn’t it on a major streaming service?

Directed by Jared Hess, who co-wrote it with his brother Jerusha, Gentlemen Broncos has some of Napoleon Dynamite in it. Benjamin Purvis (Michael Angarano) has a strange home life, one seemingly fixated on his dead father, living with his mother Judith (Jennifer Coolidge), who dreams of selling her nightgowns but is stuck working retail and making popcorn balls. Ben escapes his real life by writing science fiction. His latest book is Yeast Lords, which is all about Bronco (Sam Rockwell), a hero he has based on his father. As he writes, the audience sees the movie in his head.

Ben’s a nice guy. He’s unable to talk to most girls, but when introduced to fellow writer Tabatha (Halley Feiffer) at a science fiction writer camp, he allows her to read his story. She reacts strangely, running away, when in truth she’s stunned by how good it is. I get the feeling she wants to be with him but doesn’t have the language or ability to do that; instead she’s with Lonnie (Hector Jimenez), who makes cheap SOV-style films.

At the camp, Ben takes a lecture from one of his heroes, Dr. Ronald Chevalier (Jermaine Clement). He quickly realizes that the person who was his idol is really a jerk; eventually, one realizes that he’s run out of ideas. He turns a contest at the camp — to publish one winner’s work — into a chance to steal an idea. Ben’s Yeast Lords becomes Brutus and Balzaak with minor changes.

Throughout, Ben’s mom wants more for him. She introduces him to a Guardian Angel from church, Dusty (Mike White), who is less a father figure and more someone who teaches him how to shoot blowdarts. When everything goes bad in a few days — the Yeast Lords movie that Lonnie made is horrible, a rich man tries to assault his mother under the pretenses that he wants to get her clothes into stores and Chevalier shows up at a local bookstore — Ben flips out and gets arrested.

This is where his mother’s love appears again. She has sent all of his books to be registered and officially bound by the Writers Guild of America. There’s proof that he’s the one who wrote Chevalier ‘s work. His books replace those ones and everyone lives happily forever after.

From the opening — “In the Year 2525” by Zager and Evans playing over book covers — to how fully formed its villain is (and how much he sounds like Michael York in Logan’s Run — thanks Gizmodo, I couldn’t figure out who he reminded me of) and the love that drives the end of the movie, I was totally won over by this movie. At one point, Tabatha tells Ben, “Well, you’ll never get anywhere by just letting your mom read your work.” I am so happy to know the truth.