Bruno (2009)

July 18, 2009

Guild 45th, Seattle, WA

* / ****

File:Bruno poster.jpg

By Scott Muoio

I laughed harder at Sacha Boren Cohen’s Borat than possibly any movie I have ever seen. Playing the title character as a curious television reporter from Kazakhstan coming to America to learn about its culture, Borat’s mostly well-meaning yet ignorant offenses tickled my funny bone because they came off as innocent misunderstandings rather than intentionally irate instigations. Even when pushing the envelope, Borat’s politically incorrect jokes worked because it was easy to attribute his slander to the character’s own general ignorance rather than spiteful vitriol. In other words, we knew the whole thing was a joke and Cohen played it as such.

Bruno, Cohen’s second big screen venture, uses a similar set-up (a foreign reporter travels to America and offends everyone in his path) only instead of an innocent goatherding reporter Bruno’s title character is an aggressive Austrian homosexual fashionista. Where one seemed a well-meaning nice guy handcuffed by his ignorance the other is a self-promoting arrogant jerk who is very hard for the audience to like.

To put it another way, where Borat was a hoot Bruno is a stinker.

Bruno fails because the entire tone of the film has little sense of humour about itself and zero refinement. Where Borat was subtle Bruno is aggressive. Where Borat played with his interviewees Bruno tries to piss them off. Where Borat was able to parlay awkward moments into extended, funny setpieces the best Bruno can do is cut to a talking naked penis. Merely showing something out of its ordinary context isn’t funny; you have to do something with it. These are obvious differences between the two films and enough to put them into completely different realms of the comedy spectrum.

America may be a homophobic culture but that doesn’t come across when Bruno’s scenarios are so absurdly contrived and Bruno, himself the worst possible homosexual stereotype. Unlike Borat, where for the most part everyone who dealt with Borat’s stupidity had a choice to be extremely accommodating or not, Bruno never gives them that choice. When jokes rely as much on the reaction of those being shocked as they do by their interviewer’s ignorance and politically incorrect word choice, it just isn’t funny when Cohen doesn’t play fair.

Despite everything that happens in Borat and Bruno both films are a testament to American acceptance and tolerance. The difference: Borat is also a testament to Cohen’s comic genius. Bruno, unfortunately is not.

Director: Larry Charles

Producer: Sacha Boren Cohen, Jay Roach, Dan Mazer, Jonah Hill

Writer: Sacha Boren Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Mazer, Jeff Schaffer (Screenplay)

Starring: Sacha Boren Cohen, Gustaf Hammarsten

Original Music: Erran Baron Cohen

Cinematographer: Anthony Hardwick, Wolfgang Held

Editor: Scott Davids, James Thomas