Bruno Review

An amazingly vacuous film about an amazingly vacuous character, Bruno is not the movie that its big brother Borat was. Sacha Baron Cohen’s newest film reaches the same level of disgusting, mind blowing outrageousness without the sense of innocence the Borat character brought to the screen. Bruno, the man, is an obnoxious twit with no redeeming qualities, even when he attempts charity. In fact you’ll be hard pressed to find a character worth sympathy or admiration in the film. Just as in Borat, Cohen attempts to humiliate and expose the famous and not so famous at every turn, a noble task indeed, but in this case not quite so successful. His own egocentrism overwhelms theirs negating the charm of Cohen's other "B" character.

Bruno begins in Austria with the title character filming his popular fashion show. Naturally the young man rubs too many people the wrong way until his popularity wanes, his show is cancelled and he’s blackballed from TV, film and even fashion. The young Bruno chooses the obvious place to regain his popularity and become world famous…America. Sure enough he and a rather lame assistant travel to the United States to seek his fortune.

Unfortunately even the US cannot stand this talentless, egotistical hack and his career is shot down at every turn. Finally in an act of desperation Bruno adopts a young African boy and introduces him on a talk show like a new toy. The show of course ends in turmoil, the young African taken away by child protective services and Bruno is forced to find another claim to fame: charity work with predictable results. His attempt is a massive failure and he’s shot down at every turn. Bruno’s entire time in the US seems a failure and only at the very end of the film (the ending is ok) does anything happen worth seeing, though marginally so.

Bruno is indeed funny, but I’m not sure where laughter at the film ends and laughter over the outrageous behavior begins. The interviews, particularly with Paula Abdul and Ron Paul, were unnatural and forced. Cohen’s attempts to catch average people at their worst were also nowhere near as funny or natural as in Borat: Bruno is a very flamboyant and extreme character with none of the disarming naiveté of Borat.

Unfortunately Bruno is damn near impossible to like (both the film and the character) and I didn’t. And I got thoroughly tired of the butt (read anal) jokes, dildo jokes and making fun of effeminate behavior. Twenty minutes into the film I found it wearing, desensitizing and hence boring. I loved Borat and I would strongly suggest that if you like this type of film, see it again and avoid Bruno.

Rating 2 stars out of 5.

See you down in front, at the movies.