By Malice Intended
Whenever a rising star has a breakout film, there is an inherent novelty factor that accompanies his emergence in the mainstream. This novelty factor can be the result of gimmickery, or something truly new and innovative. Either way, one usually has to wait for the smoke to clear to see what they have on their hands. By the time the followup arrives, the fanfare has died down a bit. The truth becomes more apparent.
“Brüno” is the latest “mockumentary” from star/co-writer and producer Sacha Baron Cohen. Like “Borat”, the title character was created on “Da Ali G Show”. Bruno is a flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion journalist who travels to the U.S. to become a superstar after being blacklisted from the fashion industry. During his attempts to make it in Hollywood he manages to shock, offend and frighten pretty much everyone he comes in contact with. His victims run the gamut from celebrities and religious figures to political leaders and ordinary citizens. Bruno’s odyssey takes him from the fashion runway to the talk show circuit and even a brief stint in the military. In true “Candid Camera/Punked” fashion, most of the people Bruno comes in contact with have no idea that he is in fact a fictional character being portrayed by an actor, and that the scenario is a put on.
“Brüno” is an impossible film to evaluate from a technical standpoint. It is shot in an indistinct documentary fashion and has nothing in the way of production values. Much of this is by design, as the main feature is Bruno himself, and the way that unsuspecting people react to his outrageous antics. The laughs are born out of the absurdity of the situation and how real people react to that absurdity.
The main problem here is Cohen himself. His penchant for pushing the envelope proves to be his undoing. Most of the skits go so far over the top in their eagerness to make the audience squirm that they are neither funny nor shocking. They end up coming off like some sort of bizarre performance art instead of true comedy. The incessant piling on of outrageous images and situations is more numbing than provocative.
The gags are utterly predictable. You see the punchlines coming a mile a way. Once you get the rhythm of Cohen’s shtick, it’s hard to truly be shocked or surprised by anything that happens. His boldness in pulling off these stunts has an underlying obnoxiousness to it, like a child who pines for attention.
One also wishes that Cohen would go after less obvious and easy targets. Is it really that hard to “expose” intolerance in Rednecks, Republicans and extreme sports fans? Why is such a thing considered groundbreaking or brilliant?
The character of Bruno is also problematic. He is a walking caricature of flamboyant homosexuality. There is nothing relatable about him. If Cohen’s intent was to expose or comment on the inherent homophobia of American society, he has missed his mark. Bruno is so exceedingly bizarre in his behavior, so improbably clueless to anyone else’s sense of personal boundaries that the supposed “point” of it all falls by the wayside. You can just as easily be mad because he’s an ass rather than being angry that he’s a homosexual.
Some skits do work (The interview with Ron Paul is an obvious example). The ones that are successful are the ones that happen to be the most restrained and straight forward. Bruno’s midnight excursion with a group of redneck hunters is an example of how Cohen’s shtick gets better results when he doesn’t gleefully jump off the deep end as he is often prone to do.
“Brüno” is an unmitigated mess of a film. Not as focused or as coherent as it’s predecessor, it’s bound to inspire little more than bemusement in any but the most die hard “Ali G” fans. The amount of genuine laughs in the film can be counted on one hand. It takes more than a willingness to offend to be a great comedian. Pushing the envelope for the sake of getting a reaction doesn’t necessarily make you cutting edge or insightful. Sometimes it’s simply the sign of someone who doesn’t know when to quit.
Out Of 5
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