Movie Review: Bruno

Bruno (2009)

Directed by Larry Charles 

Written by Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Mazer, Jeff Schaffer

Starring Sacha Baron Cohen, Bono, Harrison Ford, Paula Abdul

Release Date July 10th, 2009

Published July 9th, 2009

If ever  a movie deserved the NC-17 rating it's Bruno, the latest prank comedy from British provocateur Sacha Baron Cohen. Best known for his character Borat, also a boundary stretching R-rated comedy, Baron Cohen's latest makes Borat look tame by comparison. 

Bruno is, according to voiceover, Austria's number one fashion guru. He sits front row at the best fashion shows and designers live for his opinion. Unfortunately, when he shows up for a fashion show dressed in a velcro suit he brings down the entire house and is blacklisted from the fashion world.

Looking for a new start Bruno moves to Los Angeles where he hopes to become a worldwide celebrity. This plot is merely a jumping off point for a lot of humor at the expense of homosexuals and really anyone unfortunate enough to wonder into Bruno's line of sight.

In targeting everyone Baron Cohen misses just about everyone. From easy targets like the homophobic Westboro Baptist Church and a Los Angeles based Psychic to one time Presidential candidate Representative Ron Paul and American Idol judge Paula Abdul, no one is safe from Bruno/Baron Cohen's onslaught of homophobic and racial humor.

It's odd but I laughed a great deal at Bruno. The sheer audacity of some of the things Baron Cohen does on screen earns your respect for his bravery and more than a few laughs. However, on reflection you realize how empty those laughs really are. Psychics and homophobes? Not exactly groundbreaking targets.

In one highly derivative moment Baron Cohen and director Larry Charles visit a church in Alabama where they claim they can turn gay people straight. The idea is that gay Bruno wishes to become straight to become a celebrity. One must wonder however if he borrowed the idea from director Charles' previous effort, the documentary Religulous where star Bill Maher took on another church with the same claim head on and in much funnier fashion.

The most awkward and seemingly unfair series of scenes involve Bruno learning to become macho by going hunting with a group of Alabama hunters. The hunters are assumed to be homophobic, mostly because they are southern not because they have gone out of their way to demonstrate it, but it is not their discomfort with gays that comes out in these scenes but rather Baron Cohen's overall creepy approach.

Baron Cohen is begging for a homophobic response from these four hunters, even going as far as stripping nude and asking to share one man's tent. I don't care how tolerant someone is, there is no proper way to respond to that. The scene is awkward, creepy and uncomfortable and if it draws a laugh it is for the audacity of Cohen and not at the expense of the unfortunate hunter.

Much has been made of Representative Ron Paul's appearance in the film. The scene set up is shocking but again it is Bruno and not Representative Paul who looks like a creep as he drops his pants in front of Mr. Paul after going desperately out of his way to make Mr. Paul uncomfortable. Would I prefer that Mr. Paul not use a homophobic slur as he does while fleeing Bruno? Yes. But I understand his frustration.

The film is by some machination is Rated-R. I must say that what I saw in the first 10 minutes of Bruno more than warranted an NC-17. Again, it doesn't matter whether you are homophobic or not, I don't think you want to witness simulated gay sex. You get just that within the first 10 to 20 minutes of Bruno.

Just because the naughty bits are censored doesn't mean what you are seeing is not pornographic. This is really pornography dressed up as a comedy. Moreover, it's Baron Cohen playing a prank on us in the audience, daring you to walk out. Trust me if you decide to see the movie and walk out after 10 minutes, you are not homophobic, you just have good taste.

I will admit, I didn't walk out. The outrageousness, the sheer audacity of what I was seeing, and often turning away from until it was off screen, was so stunning that I succumbed to the idea of what will he do next. Bruno never fails to create one scene more shocking than the next.

Is Bruno daring and provocative? Yes. It's even funny in the sense of how incredulity can often turn into laughter. But, on further review, Bruno/Baron Cohen is really just a cheap shot artist throwing random shots in all directions and missing nearly every target simply for the fact that he has no real perspective to defend.

Bruno is gay but he is an ugly stereotype of homosexuality. He confronts homophobes in a fashion that some will find admirable but doing so while essentially displaying his own homophobia defeats the satire. Trying to force people, not surprisingly southerners, into displays of homophobia is just cheap.

There is no agenda, gay or otherwise in Bruno and without a perspective to defend or put forward the result is nihilism and what's funny about that? Bruno is not pro-gay or homophobic. He is not in favor of pompous celebrity but he fails to lampoon it. Bruno is vaguely racist but shys away from exhibiting racism or satirizing it well.

I laughed at Bruno. A lot. But, upon reflection, the laughs are empty and meaningless. The comedy of discomfort often leads to this feeling of emptiness afterward. There are no ideas in Bruno, only awkwardness, discomfort and the feeling of being cheated by a prankster who pretends to be on your side, pretends you too are in on the joke when he is really just punching everyone, including the audience.

If that sounds like fun for you, so be it. It was fun for me in the moment. Not so much fun now that I think of defending what I laughed at. I laughed out of shock, incredulous at how else to react. I have never seen anything so daring onscreen before and I was hooked by it. Now, I wish I had done something better with my time and you may feel the same. That is, if you can even make it through the movie as I did.