For a while Jennifer Coolidge looked like she was going to be the next big female comedian. She rocked everyone’s world as Stifler’s mom in the American Pie movies, and actually turned a one-note role into something tender and sweet in Legally Blonde (come on, tell me you’ve never tried the bend and snap!) And who can forget her gold-digging wife in Best in Show? “We both love soup and snow peas, we love the outdoors, and talking and not talking.”
Maybe it’s just because she didn’t jump on the Judd Apatow comedy train or something, but we haven’t heard much from Coolidge lately. That’s why it’s great news that she’ll be part of Gentleman Broncos, the upcoming project from Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess. Yes, I know Hess made the gigantic failure Nacho Libre, and that Napoleon Dynamite got old years ago, but Gentlemen Broncos already has one secret weapon that can’t fail: Jemaine Clement.
Yes, Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords will play an established sci-fi writer who rips off the plot of his novel from a high schooler (Michael Angarano). Coolidge will play Anganaro’s mom, and will presumably bring all of her ditzy, cougar sexiness to the role. Just the idea of Clement and Coolidge in the same movie thrills me, but I recently saw Angarano in Snow Angels, and I’m excited to see what he can do with a more comedic role. I just hope Hess can break out of the clichéd Napoleon Dynamite bits and make good use of his talented actors.
