Bruno: A Funny but Flawed Film That Reinforces Rather than Refutes Negative Stereotypes

Posted by ScuzzBuster

July 12, 2009

bruno1sheet I’ll admit that I was completely uninspired to see Borat when it hit theaters and indeed I didn’t. When I finally caught it on DVD later I was actually astounded that I liked it as well as I did. Apart from the shocking and funny moments in Borat, it really has a pretty important subtext about current U.S. cultural values, intolerance, and anti-semitism. I’m not touting Borat as an educational film, but it certainly manages to create some rather uncomfortable moments when showing real people at their worst. Bruno tries to brew some of the same cultural controversy around acceptance of homosexuality, but utterly fails.

I’m torn by Bruno. Sascha Baron Cohen has managed to a make film that outdoes Borat in terms of shock value and vulgarity (which I am always wholeheartedly in favor of personally) but really completely tears the heart out of any social statements he may have wanted to make. My biggest disappointment with it comes from the fact that in the process of trying to rub salt on the wound that is average American Homophobia he manages to reinforce the stereotype to a level that is probably going to have the average U.S. Joe-Good-ole-boy walking out with their homophobic fears and stereotypes reinforced rather than rethought.

bruno1 In spite of how funny Bruno actually is at points, it’s a film that has a horrendous lack of focus or purpose. It takes the title character and rotates him through situation after situation with no almost no context whatsoever and all too often completely misses the mark. As an example, in Borat Cohen often worked his real life victims into a situation where they are forced to face the raw ignorance and thoughtlessness of the title character as a reflection of the worst part of their own racial and discriminatory attitudes. In Bruno, he often just forces his victims into somewhat inexplicable and meaningless practical jokes, almost like watching an even less funny version of Punk’d. While cornering presidential candidate Ron Paul into a hotel room, acting over-the-top flamboyant and disrobing certainly is awkward, but what exactly was he trying to expose or prove with this? That Ron Paul doesn’t like to be hit on in hotel rooms? He does manage to get Paul to use the word “queer” I guess.

bruno3 This total lack of focus is really what drags Bruno down. It meanders aimlessly through the majority of its run time with little or no purpose. Most of the situations are so painstakingly set up that it just don’t really come together very well, and some of the moments that actually end up being the most successful, such as an overnight hunting trip with some down to earth good-ole-boys, end up going just a couple of steps farther than they should. While it’s certainly outrageous that a stereotypically gay, flamboyant Bruno would sneak naked into a hunters tent with a package of condoms at 3 in the morning, is he really exposing anything about human nature or homophobia when the hunter tells him the get the hell out of his tent?

Now, that I’ve managed to get the ripping out of the way, It would be totally unfair of me to not acknowledge that there are still some devastatingly funny moments in the film, even one or two that were damned near tear-inducing in an awkward way. It’s all the more disappointing that those moments couldn’t have been part of a little bit more solid package than the film surrounding them. But the saving grace for Bruno is that it is very short. Clocking in at barely 1 hour and 20 minutes it manages to pound pretty quickly through the jokes and by the skin of it’s teeth not outlive it’s welcome, but much longer probably would have been painful.

bruno2 So even though I’ve allowed Borat to set an extremely high standard for what Cohen can do with his fringe characters, it would be extremely unfair to say that Bruno was a total waste. As stated, there are a lot of laughs, but in most cases a little emptier than they should have been. Much of the humor came from shockingly vulgar and surprising moments, and the audience response was extreme. There were several moments that buzz bombed the audience so effectively that it brought the house apart.

For those wondering, there was a bit of a controversy as to whether the Michael Jackson references would be excised from the film when most of the prints had already been struck by the time word of Jackson’s demise hit the media. Apparently, they took the wimpy way out, because all remnants of Jackson references and footage with Latoya Jackson were completely missing, which is probably why the run time was so short. I’m just a little flabbergasted that they felt that strongly about it with so much of the film being no holds barred outrageously vulgar. I really can’t even see how this film did not warrant an NC-17 without someone at the MPAA being paid off.

I’m putting in a muted, reserved recommendation for Bruno if you enjoyed Borat, but don’t expect the same level of brilliance and social commentary this time out. Rather than holding up an uncomfortable mirror to prejudices of the victims as in Borat, I can’t help but feel that he just manages to reinforce the prejudices and fears he’s trying to expose. Enjoy the outrageous laughs and two or three really effective gags, just don’t expect them all to work together as well as Cohen’s other work.

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