Film Review - Bruno
Sacha Baron Cohen Falls Short of Borat's Comedic Heights With Bruno
Where the latter film, Borat, was an incredibly pointed, unpredictable roasting of ass-backwards Americanisms, Bruno struggles to find solid ground as Cohen wreaks homoerotic havoc across the globe.
The instant celebrity obsession, homophobia and the censor-first mindset seem to be Bruno's prime targets. After about the fifteenth or so dildo/anal sex gag, though, the film risks lapsing into a shock fest. Chasing the taboo has served Cohen well in the past -- most notably on Da Ali G Show, where the Bruno and Borat characters first became popular -- but Bruno continually raises the question of whether or not Cohen still has a clear purpose in mind to support his antics.
More Story Equals Less Laughs
The runaway success of Borat and its subsequent catapulting of Cohen to star status completely changes the game for Bruno. Not only does this film come bridled with expectations, but to a certain extent, Borat's visibility limits the amount of mocumentary-style pranks Cohen and director Larry Charles can get away with.
Cohen's recent Bruno appearance at the MTV Movie Awards in May turned out to be staged, and with five different credited writers on the Bruno film, basically anyone in the film could be in on the joke (i.e. a paid actor). When it is abundantly clear, Bruno loses that sense of danger its theatrical predecessor had. It just isn't very funny to watch Bruno supposedly foul up takes of Medium, a show broadcast by NBC-Universal, the television arm of Bruno's distributor, Universal Pictures.
Sacha Baron Cohen Pushes The Limits ... Again
Although Bruno isn't a sequel to Borat in the proper sense (nothing about it is proper, come to think of it), it follows that sequel mentality -- bigger, louder and, in this case, gayer. It's all about building off of the first film's formula and then upping the ante. Like Borat, Bruno is a foreigner transplanted in America. The uber-flamboyant Austrian celebrity/fashion interviewer gets canned from his job with Funkyzeit mit Bruno after an incident in Milan sinks his profile.
His goal to get back to the top and become super famous takes him to Los Angeles, and eventually, the Middle East and Alabama; from an anal hair bleaching salon, to a swingers party, a hotel room encounter with Ron Paul to a peace conference between Israelis and Palestinians.
If things are beginning to sound a bit disjointed, that's because Bruno is. Aside from the running Hitler jokes and various male genitalia sight gags, there isn't a whole lot holding the film together. Trailers and press for the film have suggested a logical extension of Borat with a stronger focus on American homophobia, but as Cohen goes buck wild with his shenanigans, the assault on homophobia recedes into the background.
Shock 'Til You Drop Humor
When infuriating the National Guard or testing the willingness of parents to exploit their children in a Crucifixion-themed photo shoots, Cohen loses sight of any sort of unifying principle. It's more about pissing people off or pointing out how stupid or ridiculous they can be. Sure, these things are funny, but the underlying ideas get muddled in the name of audacity.
As Bruno showcases his latest accessory -- an adopted African child sporting a t-shirt that reads "Gayby" -- in front of an all-black television audience, there's no surprise when the audience members proceed to flip out. The trouble is that Cohen and Charles try to capitalize both on the shock value and the audience's homophobic response to Bruno.
Most of the film, Bruno's not flaunting his sexuality so much as his lack of understanding for, well, anything; be it the difference between hummus and Hamas or the humanitarian issue with using Mexicans as furniture. Even when his forthright homosexuality and naivite balance out in the film's comedic highpoint -- a CBS focus group screening of Bruno's TV pilot -- it's hard to really pinpoint what exactly he has prompted from the supposedly unsuspecting bystanders.
Peace, Love and Misunderstanding
Is it true homophobia or perhaps just a gut reaction to someone who, gay or straight, shouldn't be broadcast to millions of CBS viewers? The truth probably falls somewhere in between and the been-there-done-that interviews with bible-thumping gay converters and Alabama hunters, while humorous, really don't go far enough to temper that difficult middleground.
RATING: 2.5 out of 5 stars
VERDICT: When Bruno clicks, it's as funny and absurdly (wonderfully?) distasteful as you'd hope it would be. But the more heavily-scripted portions and haphazard segments often fall flat, making it a somewhat disappointing de facto sequel to Borat.
Bruno
|
What do you think about this article?
More in Film & TV
Latest Articles