Bruno

Review By: J.P. Mangalindan
JPMangalindan@TheCinemaSource.com

Movie Grade: B+

Last May, Sacha Baron Cohen, as the extremely flamboyant Austrian fashion reporter, Brüno, appeared at the MTV Movie Awards as a scantily-clad angel. He was supposed to descend from the ceiling onto the stage to present an award to Zac Efron, but a “technical malfunction” caused Cohen to descend, arse-first, onto Eminem, sitting in the audience. After Eminem’s posse pulled Cohen off, the white rapper left the ceremonies in a huff, and Cohen, still dangling in mid-air, presented an award to Efron and a bewildered audience.

Days later, Eminem revealed the mishap wasn’t just premeditated on Cohen’s part, but that the rapper had rehearsed the prank with Cohen the day of. This revelation revealed an unavoidable problem that Cohen now faces since Borat made him a household name. Previously, he had the luxury of relative anonymity, so the majority of his pranks, with the exception of willing participant Pam Anderson, were played on genuinely clueless victims who had no idea who he was or what was coming.

Now that Cohen is significant pop culture element however, you’ll inevitably wonder which of the pranks are legitimate as you watch Brüno. Still, it’s a credit to director Larry Charles, who also directed Borat, and Cohen himself, that each moment still comes across as unscripted, and as Brüno zips from one ludicrous and hilarious situation to another, you’ll eventually reach a point where you just won’t care.

After Brüno’s Austrian TV show, Funkyzeit mit Brüno, is canceled, Brüno moves to Hollywood in hopes of becoming a superstar. He hires an agent and tries to pitch a celebrity talk show. The result is probably the most unsettling pilot a focus group has ever been subjected to: slow-motion close-ups of Cohen’s penis flopping up and down, Paula Abdul awkwardly lounging on a Mexican gardener posing as makeshift furniture, and a now-deleted scene with LaToya Jackson, in which Brüno goes through LaToya’s BlackBerry and tries to text her brother Michael.

When his pilot fails to get picked up, Brüno resorts to other methods to reach superstardom, like adopting an African toddler he names “O.J.,” who travels in the cargo area of an airplane via cardboard box, is forced to participate in tasteless photo shoots (eg. a recreation of Jesus’ crucifixion), and appears on a Jerry Springer-like talk show, much to the shock and chagrin of the TV audience.

Each seemingly haphazard event is obviously carefully crafted to invoke laughter and discomfort, including one galling situation where a solemn-looking Brüno asks one parent if she’d consider liposuction on her child for a photoshoot. And in another scene, Brüno dupes Ron Paul into a sit-down interview at a hotel. When a “technical malfunction” occurs, they pause the interview, and Brüno brings Paul into the bedroom Brüno literally drops trou. Paul’s expression is as they say, priceless.

Originally, the character of Brüno was conceived to poke fun at the unequivocal eccentricities of the fashion industry. But his leap to film ...