Revüe: Brüno

I’m not entirely sure how to review Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest film, Brüno, without my critiques coming off a homophobic.

I enjoyed the film, not nearly as much as Borat, but enjoyed it nonetheless. The awkwardness was more than palpable, especially during the scenes in the South where Cohen capitalized on the homophobia.

Cohen’s movies feel like pornos in the sense that there are a bunch of scenes that they feel they need to tie together with some kind of narrative, one that ultimately isn’t too important.

Borat stood out in a way that Bruno didn’t because of that narrative. Borat was about a man coming to a new country, coping with the differences in cultures and trying to find love, while Bruno was about a gay Austrian seeking celebrity in America. The former of those narratives is obviously more accessible to an American audience while the latter is held down by severely accentuating the homosexuality.

I just got annoyed by Bruno’s character after about 45 minutes. His desperation to become famous combined with the overly gay scenes aimed at making people really uncomfortable tips from being awkward and funny to a bit too much.

Borat shined in its ability convey the stereotypes within Americans, playing on the fact that we don’t know much about Kazakhstan or the surrounding countries. For Bruno though, drawing homophobia out of people from the South is no harder than playing baseball with a beehive and getting stung.

  1. witless reblogged this from rachelhills
  2. rachelhills reblogged this from zackshapiro and added:
    Shut Up Internet: Revüe: Brüno Brilliantly put.
  3. zackshapiro posted this