Review: Bruno

Some artists are blessed with a work of genius that appeals to critics as well as the masses. The closest I got to this feeling was in a first grade coloring contest when my entry won first prize in our local paper. I was the happiest 12 year-old in town but I never got a chance to top my original work since I was banned from the contest the following year. Apparently the uptight (probably communist) contest officials did not appreciate the full page ad I took out in the paper celebrating my victory which classily stated: “Suck it amateurs! Santa Claus isn’t real and you were adopted.” The one good thing that came of my ban from the contest was that I was able to avoid the pressure of creating (or coloring in my case) something that matched or was greater than my original work. This is the downside to a follow-up project of a masterpiece. The next project almost never lives up to the hype and is in turn judged more harshly since the expectations of critics and fans are higher.

Borat, the brainchild of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, was a comedy blockbuster that both critics and fans loved (and felt the need to quote endlessly; “Hiiiigh fiiiive” *punches self in groin*). For fans of the HBO series Da Ali G Show it was an inevitability that Universal would green-light a follow-up project to Borat. Since the character of Ali G was too well known to do the kind of undercover comedy that made Borat work, that left the third character in Cohen’s arsenal. Bruno is an openly gay Austrian fashion guru that was seemingly used in the show as a time filler behind the characters of Ali G and Borat. He was my least favorite part of the show so I wondered how well a full length movie would work.

Bruno made me laugh in certain parts just as hard as I did while watching Borat for the first time. This kind of guerilla style comedy in which Cohen preys on naïve and unsuspecting victims is only sustainable for so long though. The more successful and famous he becomes, the more people recognize him. If his interviewees or victims aren’t giving their honest opinions, the comedy becomes staged and essentially like every other comedy. It’s sad that Cohen can never perform the character of Borat again without being recognized but it does safeguard that the character can never be run into the ground with countless sequels. Instead, Cohen will either start starring in traditional comedies (as he brilliantly did in Talladega Nights) or he will be forced to come up with new disguises and characters.

Bruno was really only well known to the people who watched Da Ali G show so Cohen was still able to go to some mainstream places without being recognized. It becomes clear as the film progresses though that the film crew was not provided the same luxury of anonymity as in their previous film. This leads to them shooting in more remote areas which is actually a good fit because it kills two homophobic birds with one very effeminately dressed stone. The same people who are unaware of Cohen and his Bruno character are generally the same people who would provide more extreme reactions to his open homosexuality. That last sentence was a fancy way of saying that they filmed a lot of scenes with rednecks from the South. This is coming from a country redneck from Indiana and I know how my dad and his friends would react if the foreigner they invited on their camping trip tried to climb into their tents naked holding a package of condoms. Cohen was still able to shoot in surprisingly mainstream locations however. It baffles me how the entire cast and crew of the NBC show Medium can hire him as an extra without knowing his real identity. My secret hope is that it was a janitor walking by who tipped the director to Cohen’s identity and made him feel like a fool.

Two things stuck out to me after I finished the movie. The first is that Cohen is an underrated actor throughout all of this. This type of filmmaking does not allow for multiple takes since part of the comedy comes from the reactions of those around Cohen. This makes it crucial for Cohen to do things exactly the way he wants them in one take. If he laughs at all, the sketch is essentially ruined. Some of these scenarios are extreme too and that brings me to second point. Cohen has huge stones (and not because this movie showed them to me) for doing comedy the way that he wants. Not many comedians would go into the Middle East and insult Bin Laden to the face of a known terrorist while staying in gay character.

Borat was funny but also interesting in that it gave an insight into some people’s true thoughts or prejudices since they thought they were talking to a simple, naïve foreigner. Bruno is comedy on a baser level which is most of the time making people feel uncomfortable with homosexuality or ridiculous behavior. Borat had this too (the naked fight scene is unapologetically my favorite in the film) but it felt smarter than Bruno at times. Am I condemning Bruno for this? Absolutely not. Part of me is standing up, applauding and begging for more. I’m pretty sure this is the same part of my personality that thinks a monkey's ability and desire to fling poo is one of nature's miracles.

I’m interested to see what Cohen does next in his career. I really wish he could give a big screen treatment to the Ali G character the same way that he did for Borat and Bruno but the character is too well known to get the type of interviews that make him funny. Cohen could either go back to the lab (I learned that phrase from Eminem) to create more characters no one has seen before or he could start doing more traditional, scripted comedy. Either way, I will continue to be a fan who is appreciative of the two solid movies he gave us.

Out of a total of five, I would buy this movie three apple-tinis.