Is Bruno crude? Check. Is Bruno offensive? Check. Is Bruno embarrassingly funny? Check.
Plot of Bruno
In this wickedly uncomfortable mockumentary, Sacha Baron Cohen plays Bruno, a flamboyant Austrian fashionista looking for meaning in his life after an embarrassing faux pas at a runway show. And by faux pas it is meant that he single-handedly destroyed a fashion show with a Velcro suit mishap. So the bizarrely-dressed, in-your-face, Bruno, heads off to America with his adoring assistant Lutz (Gustaf Hammarsten) to become a worldwide celebrity. His plan involves producing a pilot for his own celebrity interview show, turning “straight” like other big stars (such as Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and Kevin Spacey) and goading everyone from Republican presidential candidates to rednecks into the anti-gay movement. Hilarity ensues.
Directed by Larry Charles, who also helmed Borat, Bruno follows a similar formula. Cohen sneaks into various events and dupes celebrities and regular folk alike into thinking he’s for real. It follows a more contrived story than Borat did, and it has lost a bit of freshness. Not surprising considering that Borat flew completely under the radar until its release. With Bruno, it was harder to find people who could be fooled.
What to Expect From Bruno
While there are laughs to be had (good-natured, if crudely delivered) at the expense of actual gay relationships, Cohen is mostly interested in using his character's flamboyance to push buttons about reactions to homosexual men. Some of the movie's humor is less noble than its mission though, revolving as it does around the breaking of rules or the breaching of simple boundaries of personal space that have nothing to do with gay or straight. Many of these people are trying to avoid a sexual assault, rather than a simple homosexual encounter. Most people would probably react in a similar way if confronted with Bruno’s advances (homophobic or not).
Some of the movie’s funniest moments come in the silence that comes after an uncomfortable comment. When Bruno goes camping with a trio of good-ol'-boy hunters and remarks that "all the stars in the sky make you think of all the hot guys in the world," the long uncomfortable silence that follows is hilarious.
Expect Uncomfortable Silences and Horrifying, Hilarious Realities
The humor isn’t limited to uncomfortable silences and displays of Bruno’s over-the-top sexuality though. In what is arguably the movie’s most disturbing (and shouldn’t-be-funny-but-kinda-is) vignette, a group of stage parents make it clear that they’ll do anything to land their kid a job with Bruno’s adopted child O.J., including liposuction for a 30-pound youngster. Slightly horrifying.
While it’s certainly an offensively funny movie, Bruno’s humor is hit and miss. It’s likely to leave audiences squirming from embarrassment and discomfort as well as howling with laughter.
Bruno, which was originally handed an NC-17 rating, still pushes the limits of its R-rating, but that comes as no surprise. No doubt the DVD and Blu-ray releases will include all sorts of deleted, uncensored scenes. Considering what made it into the theatrical release, it’s hard to imagine what more there could possibly be. But no doubt, there’ll be something. And it’ll be funny.
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