Bruno: The Buzz Review
The first thing you need to know about Brüno is this: It is a sensationally rude film. Do not take your mother to see this movie.
The only other thing you need to know is that it’s very very funny indeed. If you have a reasonably crude sense of humour, and you don’t mind the occasional full-screen closeup of a waggling penis, Brüno is a safe bet for an evening’s entertainment.
The basic premise of the movie departs little from the template established in Borat: Naive overseas visitor exposes the not-so-secret craziness of assorted American stereotypes with a cavalcade of crude, daft and from some perspectives offensive gags.
Sacha Baron Cohen doesn’t confine himself to Rednecks and California airheads this time though. As part of Brüno’s misguided quest to re-establish himself as a celebrity he attempts to solve the Palestinian conflict. The result is a basic but still hilarious sight gag, a couple of the kind of disingenuous interviews that Baron Cohen has been trading on since the early days of Ali G, and one face to face with a terrorist leader that will have you alternately guffawing, biting your nails and gasping in sheer shock. You can’t accuse this movie of just baiting the same predictable targets.
I’m not sure if cinemagoers will get to see the scene featuring LaToya Jackson, where Baron Cohen exploits the former singer’s willingness to exploit her family connections to painfully comic effect. I daresay it’ll turn up on a future DVD release. It’d be a shame if it were snipped from current cinema prints though: It really doesn’t denigrate the memory of the late King Of Pop, just the venality of those who would use his fame for their own profit.
There’s a jaw-dropping segment too, involving the parents of child actors. As with a lot of the scenes in this movie, it’s hard to believe that some of these scenes aren’t set-ups. If they are, none of the actors involved is currently listed on the film’s IMDB page. The conclusion we’re obliged to reach is that there really are minor celebrities, showbiz PRs, suburban swingers, chat show audiences and wrestling fans out there who really are as crazy as depicted.
It’s not perfect of course, what film is? The peculiar Austrian pidgin English that Sacha Baron Cohen chooses to characterise his outrageously camp creation’s dialogue is unconvincing and a little irksome after a while. Not as irritating and borderline racist as the mock-Israeli accent Adam Sandler affects in You Don’t Mess With The Zohan, but it’s along that spectrum.
I don’t want to tell you every detail of the movie, even though half the fun of watching it is seeing the gags coming and squirming in vicarious embarrassment and disbelief as you see Brüno getting himself into situations that make the naked wrestling match in Borat look like The Royal Variety Show. I don’t want to tell you because I want you to go and see it and be shocked and amused as much as I was. It’s crude, vulgar, offensive and the exact opposite of the focus-grouped pap that we’re all too often offered as cinema comedy.
But don’t take your Mum. It really is astoundingly rude.
