Bruno (Larry Charles, 2009): USA

Reviewed by Byron Potau.  Viewed on Edwards Cinemas, Santa Maria, CA.

Sasha Baron Cohen first hit theaters with his satire Borat.  In the similarly styled road movie Bruno Cohen gives us another one of his creations to wreak havoc in America, but this time it does not go over nearly as well or as funny as it did before.

Bruno is a very gay Austrian fashion reporter who loses his job after a mishap at one of the fashion shows.  The very public humiliation also causes him to lose his boyfriend and so Bruno sets out for America with his assistant’s assistant Lutz (Gustaf Hammarsten) to become famous.  He gets an agent and begins a cycle of failed attempts at fame.  In one scene he gets a job as an extra only to disrupt the shooting several times, in another he tries to seduce politician Ron Paul, mistaking him for Ru Paul, in an interview in an attempt to become famous by having a sex tape, and in another scene he has shot a horribly offensive pilot for a focus group who are extremely repulsed by it.

There is more of the same as Bruno gets into one situation after another, trying to become famous while pushing his homosexuality on everybody he comes in contact with, but the film has a very one note feel to it and gets tiresome quickly.  Much of the film is more shocking than it is funny and it is amazing Cohen did not get seriously beaten by several of the people as he continuously tries to make excessive and unwelcome homosexual advances on very heterosexual men.

Very little of the satire of Borat is in this film.  Much of the film instead takes a Tom Green style approach to comedy as Cohen makes such a nuisance of himself trying to elicit a funny reaction that it is very commendable that the people in the film put up with as much as they do.  As Bruno might say, “this film is so Tom Green,” and that can’t be a good thing, although Bruno Got Fingered would not have been an inappropriate title given Bruno’s antics.  The film does have a few funny parts, but not enough to make the rest of the film worthwhile.  If you are really that curious to see it, at least wait for the DVD.  That way you can forward through it or just stop it altogether.  Chances are you’ll want to do one or the other.

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Published:
07.16.09 / 12am
Category:
Films