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.

Movie Review Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) 

Directed by Tim Burton

Written by John Logan

Starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen

Release Date December 21st, 2007

Published December 21st, 2007

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is filled with such self congratulatory irony that one is forced to call it arrogant. Arrogance is often seen as a negative quality and it is certainly nothing less than a pejorative here. However, the line between arrogance and confidence is thin here because of the talent involved.

It grows odd then that some of the arrogance of the creators of this Steven Sondheim adaptation comes from insecurity. Tim Burton is no fan of musicals. He never wanted to make one. He chose to make Sweeney Todd because of the almost anti-musical qualities of Sondheim's creation. This however, leads to a violent form of ironic detachment from the music and sentiment of the songs that leaves the filmgoer outside the emotion of the piece.

In not wanting to make a musical, Burton has attempted to make an anti-musical and as such forgotten that involving an audience is necessary even when you are rebelling against a form many audiences find so easily involving.

Johnny Depp stars as Sweeney Todd, though Barker is his real name, he became Todd in a British prison colony. When he was a young man Benjamin Barker's wife and child were taken from him by the jealous machinations of one Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman). Envious of the young barber, his beautiful wife (Laura Michelle Kelly) and baby, Turpin had Barker arrested on a trumped up charge and sent to Australia, then a British penal colony.

Returning 15 years later as Todd, Benjamin Barker seeks his revenge on Turpin and the hellhole London that has risen up around him. Returning to his old shop where his former landlady Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) has kept his beloved silver razors, Sweeney will pick the shave business and use it as a base of operations for his revenge.

The sub story of Sweeney Todd involves the young sailor Anthony (Jamie Campbell Bower) who rescued Sweeney at sea and brought him to London and who also happens to fall for Sweeney's now teenage daughter Johanna (Jane Wisener), now a captive in Judge Turpin's home staring listlessly from a gilded cage. The teenage lovers work to leave the oppressive violence and sadness of the Sweeney story and the young actors are effective in that.

Now if only Tim Burton gave a damn about them, we'd have something here. Unfortunately, Burton doesn't take much care with the young lovers, bungling their coupling and their involvement with Sweeney to the point that what should be a major revealing moment hits with little flourish and is shuffled quickly offstage in favor of more revenge and viscera.

Fans of Viscera, I'm talking serious blood and guts here, will be more than satisfied with Sweeney Todd. The film is soaked in viscous fluid. However, do not mistake Sweeney for the blood stopped likes of Hostel or Halloween. No, Tim Burton is more humorous in his detachment than the frightening seriousness of Eli Roth or Rob Zombie who come off as real life Sweeney's seeking revenge on humanity in their hateful attacks on audiences.

Oddly enough, Burton would have to be more engaged in Sweeney Todd for that level of commitment to hatred. Thus Sweeney has an ironic detachment that leaves audiences little place to be appalled, repelled or won over by it. We are left merely as observers of rich cinematography, performances of great commitment and songs that offer glimpses of emotional involvement and dark humor.

Tim Burton has always been the disaffected genius working within the system and subverting it with his art-pop. Conversely, at a certain age disaffection becomes an old pose struck with boredom and stagnation. Sweeney Todd is far too big budget busy to be boring but stagnant is not far off. From a creative perspective Tim Burton's imaginative whimsy and his attempt to subvert it by covering it in blood fails to beat away the stagnating emotional distance.

In interviews Burton has discussed how the Broadway approach to Sweeney's blood soaked tragedy, the belt it back of the room, typical Broadway approach, was inappropriate for such dark brooding material. Yet here he seems to demonstrate that a more dramatic, Broadway approach, heightened emotions, heightened reality, may be the only way to render such awesome grand guignol tragedies.

I can tell you that Burton's minimalist approach takes the wind out of the sails and translates what should be grand emotional developments into something we in the audience merely observe without involvement.

Movie Review Hugo

Hugo (2011) 

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Written by John Logan 

Starring Asa Butterfield, Chloe Grace Moretz, Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen

Release Date November 23rd, 2011 

Published 10-25-2023

Imagine for a moment Martin Scorsese taking you aside to tell you why he loves the movies. Not only does Martin Scorsese tell you why he loves movies, he tells you via a fable about a child, a mechanized figure and legendary French director George Melies. If you're like me then this scenario sounds like bliss and "Hugo" is indeed a blissful experience. Through the much maligned form of the family movie Martin Scorsese has offered to fans an education in the magic of the movie and a wonderful adventure that will undoubtedly delight the whole family.

Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) lost his father (Jude Law) at a very young age. The tragedy is still fresh when we meet Hugo while he runs about fixing the clocks inside a French train station. The clocks had been the purview of Hugo's drunken, loutish Uncle (a barely recognizable Ray Winstone); Hugo took over when his Uncle disappeared.

Hugo has subsisted for some time without adult supervision. His means of gathering provisions is to steal them; something that has him on the radar of the train station's nasty head of security (Sascha Baron Cohen). Hugo steals more than just food however and it's on a non-food related excursion that Hugo comes close to getting caught.

Hugo has only one possession, a strange robot-like figure that is nearly as big as he is. This automaton, as his father had called it, was likely once owned by a strange old magician and assisted with fabulous stage theatrics. Hugo is convinced that if he can fix the automaton that it may be the key to a message from his late father.

While trying to steal parts for his automaton Hugo crosses the toy shop operator, Mr. George (Ben Kingsley). As punishment Mr. George takes Hugo's beloved notebook that once belonged to Hugo's father. In order to get it back Hugo enlists the help of Mr. George's adopted God-Daughter, Isabelle (Chloe Moretz) and together they begin a grand adventure.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media

Movie Review Talladega Nights The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

Talladega Nights The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) 

Directed by Adam McKay 

Written by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay 

Starring Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen, Amy Adams, Gary Cole, Leslie Bibb

Release Date August 4th, 2006 

Published August 3rd, 2006 

Will Ferrell struggled through 2005 with a pair of potential blockbusters that went belly up. Kicking And Screaming and Bewitched were Ferrell's attempt to solidify his star status outside the auspices of his frat pack pals Vince Vaughn and the Wilson brothers and they failed. With his first effort of 2006 Ferrell returns to safer territory. Under the guidance of his Anchorman director Adam McKay, Ferrell gets back in the comedic driver seat in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

Using their Anchorman formula, McKay and Ferrell simply adapt Anchorman to the Nascar track. Take an arrogant simpleton seemingly on top of the world. Pull the rug out from under him and then watch as he crawls back to the top as improvised comic madness rains all around him. Some may fault the formulaic approach but you can't deny that this formula works.

Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) is the number one driver in all of Nascar. His risky style has him finishing first or crashing the car and not finishing at all. With the help of his teammate Cal Jr (John C. Reilly), Ricky Bobby's place in the winner circle every week is assured. That is, until the arrival of the French formula one champion Jean Girard (Sacha Baron Cohen) who arrives gunning for Ricky Bobby.

In their first showdown, Girard gets the best of Ricky when Ricky is involved in a major crash. The aftermath of the crash has Ricky thinking he is paralyzed and leads to his being unable to drive fast anymore. Can Ricky get over his fears, get back in the car and win at Talladega again or will he be delivering pizzas on a huffy bike the rest of his life.

That is what passes as a plot for a plot in Talladega Nights though plotting is not something director Adam McKay and star Will Ferrell are all that interested in. Working from a script left open for much improv, the point of Talladega Nights is crafting gag after gag after gag. Some of the gags don't work, many more do work and produce big, big laughs. In particular watch out for Will Ferrell improvising a unique dinner blessing and Ferrell's inspired reaction to his harrowing 'fiery' crash.

The talented cast of Talladega Nights, lead by Ferrell, Reilly and Cohen and backed up more than ably by Michael Clarke Duncan, Jane Lynch and Gary Cole, turns out some terrifically inspired moments of sheer goofiness and energetic weirdness. Much of the humor is based on what must have been hours of improvisation.

If there is one problem with the cast it's with the film's use of Oscar nominee Amy Adams. Hired to play Ferrell's secondary love interest, Adams is introduced early on and then abandoned. She returns but not until the third act and even then is limited to one terrifically eccentric monologue. There is no question from this monologue that Adams can hang with this terrific troop of improv actors but it seems that much of her role is on the cutting room floor.

Talladega Nights is deeply flawed as a typical three act film. The story arc is weak and the storytelling is disjointed. But, none of that really matters once you accept that all of this goofiness isn't really a movie as much as it is a series of gags. Some of these gags are funny, some are very funny and some fall flatter than a blown tire.

Sacha Baron Cohen has star potential rolling off his every mangled syllable. His upcoming comedy Borat, based on a character from his HBO show The Ali G Show, is generating big buzz. Talladega Nights is an excellent introduction of his talent for weird accents and highly eccentric characters. Watching Cohen and Ferrell riff back and forth, Cohen with his astonishingly incomprehensible French accent and Ferrell with his simpleton's twang, in several confrontational scenes is pure comic gold that, no doubt, left plenty of material for a DVD worth of improv riffs, some of which you can see over the films credits.

In a cast filled with scene stealers Gary Cole nearly walks away with the entire picture as Ricky's no good, low down, drug dealing, car racing daddy Reese Bobby. Known more for his buttoned down simps, Bill Lumberg in Office Space or the Vice President on The West Wing, Cole shows a surprising talent for being a dirtbag. With a beer in his hand, a twang in his voice, and clothes that almost stink through the screen, Cole is pitch perfect as a redneck deadbeat.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby is very funny as a series of Nascar based improv skits. As a movie it's a disjointed, often ridiculous exercise in plot mechanics and minor melodrama. I found the film left a lot to be desired in terms of great filmmaking but that is a minor concern when a movie makes me laugh as much as I laughed during Talladega Nights.