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Bookmark this pageBruno (2009)
Director: Larry Charles
Movie review
From Time Out London
Click here to read our exclusive interview with BrunoYou can make jokes about Hitler. You can strut around Jerusalem in hot pants and fake Hassidic curls. You can make a pitch for an American TV show with a slot called ‘Keep It… Or Abort It!’. But, whatever you do, don’t you dare make a gag about Michael Jackson. The removal from Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest parade of in-your-face shamelessness of a scene in which Brüno, a disgraced Austrian fashion reporter in Hollywood, stitches up La Toya Jackson and tries to extract her brother’s number from her mobile, suggests that Baron Cohen’s comedy isn’t entirely tasteless or free of boundaries. Which isn’t something you’d believe while watching a talking penis swinging around the screen or while experiencing the succession of filthy and provocative slapstick, stunts, sketches and stitch-ups that Baron Cohen has jumbled together here into the loosest of loose stories.
The plot is similar to ‘Borat’: an eccentric foreigner comes to America, does outrageous things, makes people (some famous) look dumb. Brüno is the third clown in Baron Cohen’s repertoire after Ali G and Borat, and once again he masks an acid tongue and sharp mind with a distracting voice and a neverending catwalk of ridiculous outfits. But this feels a bit more desperate in the execution, as if Baron Cohen and director Larry Charles are victims of their own success and have had to try much harder to give their film a documentary sheen. There are certainly more question marks hanging over the ‘real’ episodes than there were in ‘Borat’ – and fewer of those episodes too – and you doubt Baron Cohen could ever stretch to make another film along similar lines.
But what’s lacking in the presentation, Baron Cohen makes up for with sheer ballsy, outrageous bravado. He bulldozes you with shock tactics. Brüno is a mesmerising invention, by turns repulsive and compelling. His exploits, from becoming an extra on US TV show ‘Medium’ to taking a bunch of rednecks hunting, zero in on fair if easy targets, whether that’s homophobic hetero America or the celebrity world, for which Brüno is a global ambassador. (At one point, he visits a Hollywood PR to find a charity to support. ‘We’ve had Darfur,’ he says, ‘so what’s Dar-five?’)
The humour veers wildly between the childish (mistaking Hamas for ‘hummus’) and the savage (an encounter with a ‘healer’ of gays) and isn’t always focused enough – what’s the point, in this context, of ribbing representatives of the Palestinian and Israeli causes? And although there’s little for the open-minded to find troubling, some might bristle at bitchy Brüno as a stereotype of a gay man obsessed with sex, clothes and fame.
But most viewers won’t have the time or energy to dwell on such worries: they’ll be watching with one eye closed from embarrassment and the other welling up with tears of laughter.
Click here to read our exclusive interview with Bruno
Author: Dave Calhoun
Time Out London Issue 2029, July 9 - 15, 2009
User reviews of this film
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- james said...
- Posted on Aug 01 2009 20:33 man it made me horny xxxxxx loved it, so sexy uhmmmmmm xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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- Louise said...
- Posted on Aug 01 2009 20:30 complete and utter rubbish. boring, crude, coarse, disgusting etcccc! too much sex, sex sex sex, boring blahhhhhhh crap, utter crap.
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- Sally said...
- Posted on Aug 01 2009 12:47 Boring Story, not enough story, few clever comments, and he does play the part very well, however i was really disapointed, it just wasnt funny and i was glad when it finished to be honest.
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- Sally said...
- Posted on Aug 01 2009 12:44 I was really dissapointed, really boring story, it just wasnt funny and I couldnt wait for it to finish
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- Cindero said...
- Posted on Jul 30 2009 18:24 Went expecting more of the laugh-out-loud humour of Borat, but what a disappointment... Most of the "jokes" were pathetically crude and witless, only a 14-year old schoolboy would find amusing. It was obvious from the start, that unlike Borat, all the "victims" were in on the jokes and knew exaxtly that it was a supposed send-up. Can I have my money back Mr Baron Cohen?
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- chris said...
- Posted on Jul 21 2009 03:51 This film is so bad there are not words to describe it! Simply put, its Borats plot, without any of the laughs. Its purely gross on so many levels, i get that SBC is poking fun at models and celebrities which is cool by me, but this is just a terrible film, OTT gay scenes that made me totally uncomfortable and im not in anyway homophobic. Its a film thats just not worth paying to see.
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- mariusz said...
- Posted on Jul 20 2009 16:04 Absolut trash...
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- pete said...
- Posted on Jul 20 2009 10:01 The movie is an assemblage of bits and pieces shot because they seemed funny then strung together into a vague form of continuity. Critics praised it and movie goers panned it - the paying public got it right - dross utter dross. Don't bother wasting your time and treasure.
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- Pepita said...
- Posted on Jul 17 2009 10:04 To be fair if Bruno preceded Borat maybe the reviews would be less harsh. SBC by sticking to the same recipe tries mainly to shock or disgust the audience - yet it feels like somehow we saw all that 3 years ago. Probably because Borat was not SO 2006... Few good bits in the film but overall quite dissapointing. It's (not) niiiice.
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- Zayro said...
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Posted on Jul 17 2009 06:24
This makes Borat look like a PG film. Bruno is wildly offensive and raucously outrageous, yet I couldn't stop laughing. The people in this film (apart from Sacha Baron Cohen's "Bruno") are all real, and had no prior knowledge about the movie. Every shot of this movie is pure and unscripted, and it's a miracle the camera crew hung around to capture it all. Wonderful movie - but beware - don't watch this piece of cinema gold with kids in the room.
Highly recommended for fans of Cohen! - Report as inappropriate
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- Sarah said...
- Posted on Jul 16 2009 14:34 Not a patch on Borat. Not clever, not taboo-breaking, not shocking - just dull and repetitive.
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- Sarah said...
- Posted on Jul 16 2009 14:31 Not a patch on Borat. A boring unfunny film - not shocking or taboo-breaking, just dull.
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- Peteski said...
- Posted on Jul 16 2009 10:40 This film had me, and the rest of last night's audience in tears and feeling somewhat shellshocked. If people feel a little uncomfortable with some of the material, then that might reveal more about them than they would like to admit. But I thought it was quite brilliant edgy comedy, pushing at the limits, which is what good comedy should do.
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- craig said...
- Posted on Jul 15 2009 21:59 i dont know too go see this or not, please comment so i know to see iht or not :Sx
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- david said...
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Posted on Jul 15 2009 01:07
In terms of a thick plotline and movie credentials, Bruno has nothing. But you will not have any time to think about that as the most shcking scenes ever hit you. Do not let other reviews put you. Not as clever as Borat, but trust me you you will NEVER see another film like it.
The audience were shocked and in fits of tears throughout and it was given a round of applause at the end. - Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Larry Charles
Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Gustaf Hammarsten, Clifford Bañagale full cast
Genre(s): Comedy
Rated: 18
Duration: 83 mins
UK Release: Jul 10 2009
US Release: Jul 10 2009
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