July 21, 2009
Puerile, mean, shocking, rude, controversial, confusing, confused - and occasionally hilarious, Bruno leaves you with a ramshackle assortment of mixed emotions and a lot to talk about. Is Sacha Baron Cohen a genius or just a naughty schoolboy, or is he both? Is this film badly made, viewing more like a collage of YouTube clips than the polished creation you might have expected from a comedian at the very top of his game? Is this an inadequate sequel to Borat, with BC burnt-out and desperately taking his brand of schadenfreude humour just one step too far, alienating his previous fanbase? Of course, pretty much all of that applies - hence the confusion. Only BC could tell a Palestinian Freedom Fighter leader that his hair looked sun-damaged and that his leader (Bin Laden) looked like a dirty Santa - or for that matter, wear a hotpants version of hasidic Jewish uniform in Jerusalem (where you can be stoned in the street for inappropriate attire). Or make his 18+ audience watch him do the aeroplane trick on widescreen to bad happy hardcore. His total lack of fear is impressive (even if it is backed by the bodyguard might of Universal Pictures).
Don't see this film if you are expecting back-to-back fashionista interviews; post-Borat BC is on the whole too big these days to remain incognito in Bruno's old stomping grounds. What we're served up instead is the loosely plotted tale of a faintly endearing bimbo on a quest to become extremely famous. The road is peppered with the standard fayre: vignettes filmed on hand-held, contrived to make 'normal' people look like as idiotic as Bruno, whilst approximately three times as prejudiced and a third as clever as Baron Cohen. This seems indeed to be BC's own personal mission, with the only relevant question for the audience being whether they will still want him to succeed after having seen this.
Whilst the sycophantic in-joke musical finale made me feel slightly queasy, I'm glad I saw Bruno, though I still can't quite answer the question at its heart - which I think is this. Is it a good thing that BC is out there illustrating the absurdly cruel and stupid possibilities of human nature by blowing it a huge raspberry, or might we tired old cynics be ready for someone who wants to blow it a kiss?
Don't see this film if you are expecting back-to-back fashionista interviews; post-Borat BC is on the whole too big these days to remain incognito in Bruno's old stomping grounds. What we're served up instead is the loosely plotted tale of a faintly endearing bimbo on a quest to become extremely famous. The road is peppered with the standard fayre: vignettes filmed on hand-held, contrived to make 'normal' people look like as idiotic as Bruno, whilst approximately three times as prejudiced and a third as clever as Baron Cohen. This seems indeed to be BC's own personal mission, with the only relevant question for the audience being whether they will still want him to succeed after having seen this.
Whilst the sycophantic in-joke musical finale made me feel slightly queasy, I'm glad I saw Bruno, though I still can't quite answer the question at its heart - which I think is this. Is it a good thing that BC is out there illustrating the absurdly cruel and stupid possibilities of human nature by blowing it a huge raspberry, or might we tired old cynics be ready for someone who wants to blow it a kiss?