Brüno

Home
Smell the Movies
Smell the TV

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	2009
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	Larry Charles
Genre:	Sexual satire
Starring:	Sacha Baron Cohen, Gustaf Hammarsten
Rating:	3/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0889583/
Tagline:	Borat was so 2006
Favourite line:	"Ich was going to become famous by solving a world problem! But which one? Clooney's got Darfur, Sting's got the Amazon, and Bono's got AIDS! Luckily, there was still one shithole left to fix: the Middle Earth."

After the astonishing success of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Sacha Baron Cohen returns with possibly (hopefully?) the last of his potential money-spinning alter egos, gay Austrian fashionista Bruno.

The plot:
Desperate for success, Brüno is forced to flee German speaking Europe after an incident with some fans.
Eager to break America, Bruno heads to the Land of the Free, stopping off for a brief interview with a terrorist along the way.
Once in America, he sets about trying to maximise his fame, with trusted helper Lutz in tow.

That's the plot, but of course it's totally irrelevant, for this is all about the set-ups.
The flamboyant 'gayness' of the Brüno character is exploited to the max, as Cohen goes about upsetting anyone and everyone who finds homosexuality offensive. From a Pastor in The Bible Belt, to a bunch of hunters in the wilds of Northern America, to a UFC competition deliberately staged to be 'pro-heterosexuality’ he takes liberal pot shots at all he considers ignorant.
Though feeling way more staged than its predecessor - it is hard to know for sure how much of this is real and how much 'managed' by the crew – this is still tear-spillingly funny on occasion, and the closing sequence which sees Cohen wrestling naked once again has to be seen to be believed.
Gratuitous nudity, material that will upset the wilfully offended and deluded, this is not as cutting edge as it used to be, but it still had me in stitches at times.
Very funny stuff.