Note: I just want to officially announce that this will be my last movie review for the next little while. I try to write one per week, and have been pretty good about doing so since November, but summer class is taking its toll and I need to focus on that for a while.
I plan to make my triumphant return with a review of either G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra (Aug. 7) or District 9 (Aug. 14) . Until then, here?s?
Borat, a Kazakh journalist, took over the world with a bizarre sort of charming vulgarity that was as socially revealing as it was hilarious in 2006. Borat is a creation of Sacha Baron Cohen, the man responsible for Ali G, and now Brüno. All three characters were created by him with the intention of agitating xenophobic streaks for laughs, and all three characters are portrayed by him. Not only is Brüno the last of the trio to receive the big screen treatment, it may be surprising to discover that his adventure is the crudest and most outrageous of them all, if only because it was previously thought that the bar for shocking comedy could be raised no higher.
Then perhaps it?s fitting that Brüno is the last of Cohen?s characters to be adapted for a feature film. It made sense for Cohen to take his core character to the big screen first with Ali G in 2002, and his second outing in Borat was largely experimental. With the experiment being a phenomenal success, it falls to Brüno to wrap up this perverse trilogy of caricatures, hopefully through a film that?s tightly satisfying and technically refined. And while Brüno is as hilarious and scandalous as we?ve come to expect, the film itself it sadly not without issues.
For the uninitiated Brüno is an extravagantly gay Austrian fashion television diva who wears ridiculous outfits in the name of the vacuous fashion industry by day, and enjoys various bizarre sexual practices by night. Practices that Brüno is all too eager to demonstrate with the help of his vertically challenged south east Asian boyfriend and home gym equipment modified into various penetration devices. When he becomes the centre of a wardrobe malfunction at Milan Fashion Week, he is exiled from the fashion world, and seeks celebrity in America. With the help of his overzealous assistant Lutz (Gustaf Hammarsten), he embarks on a quest to become famous by whatever means necessary; even if it means giving up men.
Sound familiar? Brüno is virtually identical, both in design and execution, to Borat. This means, for those who are completely unaware of these characters, that Brüno leaves the land he calls home for a rather simple goal. This goal is achieved through conducting interviews with assorted figures of various societal upbringings and through interactions with the local populace in America for advice. The road gets rocky, our heroes fight, etc. Trust me, if you?ve seen Borat, you can safely hazard a guess as to how Brüno ends.
Brüno never deviates too far from the simple path its spiritual predecessor followed, and while it may seem bland to witness the exact same story from different eyes, this would only be a problem if the audience were watching Brüno for story-time in the first place. What this simple foundation allows is the ability for the characters to explore bizarre and often surreal scenarios without being restrained by pesky reality. Quite ironic considering the satiric real world bearing, and all the more impressive because of it.
Far more often than not, Brüno is absolutely uproarious. While some humour does come from the relentless barrage of flamboyant homosexuality impressed upon simple folk from middle America who have little to no experience in dealing with such personalities, Cohen?s sharpest barbs are reserved for celebrity. Brüno wants to be famous, and he does whatever he can to emulate the circumstances that caused Brangelina and Madonna to become household names. This includes hiring an agent, making a sex tape, adopting a child, sponsoring charity events, and even repairing civil strife in war torn countries. But when his aggressive queerness appears to ruin all his plans, he realizes that his orientation is what?s ruined his life, and he sets out to become straight.
While Brüno is consistently funny from start to end, the film as a whole is not without its problems. The first of which stems from the character?s aggressively flamboyant and hyperbolic homosexuality. Poking fun at people?s insecurities and hypocrisies surrounding homophobia is all well and good, and indeed that is the underlying point of the film, but in many ways Brüno simply takes off too strong. Because the goal of Cohen?s creation is to elicit reaction and expose intolerance, Brüno tends to go too far too fast. Instead of testing the water of the situation with some light antics, Brüno goes straight for the jugular and crashes into the scene, firing off queer caricatures on all cylinders. There?s no subtlety or discreetness in the way Cohen conducts himself, and the result can sometimes come dangerously close to the point of exasperation.
Perhaps exasperation is too strong a word. While Cohen proceeds to push several envelopes off several precipices, the offences are never long enough to cause boredom, or at the very worse strong enough to suspect a modicum of malicious intent. And if you are of delicate mind, you have to ask yourself what you?re doing watching Brüno in the first place. The adverts don?t even scratch the surface of the shock content the film offers, so stumbling into the theatre out of curiosity will likely cause you to walk out in disgust within a few minutes.
The second major problem is easily attributed to the creation of the character himself. Whereas we let Borat get away with most of his antics due to his status as a foreigner from a strange country currently developing with aspirations to be like America, Brüno doesn?t have that same benefit of doubt. Brüno is Austrian, specifically from Vienna, and functions in the heart of high culture. After being disgraced in his homeland, he heads to America seeking the fame he feels destined for, and such is the core premise of the film. Because the character is more familiar to what many urban North Americans are used to seeing, we?re less willing to believe that he really can be so vapid and obnoxious. Interestingly enough, this fleet comfort has the dual effect of meaning that Brüno must work harder to entertain us. So while the film knows that the audience is demanding of a more abrasive character to compensate for familiarity, it doesn?t have our immediate sentiments to rely on in order to know when they?ve gone too far.
For the most part, the balancing act between what is comfortably crude and what isn?t is navigated through cleanly. Unfortunately, there are moments when the stars align against Cohen and he ends up going over the edge in the wrong direction. Such is the incident where Brüno decides that the key to fame is a sex tape, and intends to share the scene with 2008 presidential candidate Ron Paul. The entire affair is uncomfortable, lacking not only an effective punchline, but a designated spot in film as a whole. It?s one of those scenes that certainly sounds funny on paper, but really only serves to illustrate how far Brüno is able to exploit powerful people.
And really, that?s what Brüno ends up being all about. Cohen takes on fame and celebrity because real people have already been victimized by him. Because people said that Borat could only be the first and last of its kind, it seems therefore that Cohen intends Brüno to be a direct statement that there is an infinite number of fools; that no one is ever safe, and that the concept can be effectively reduplicated. Borat was harmless, but Brüno is vindictive. And it?s hard to imagine it working any other way.
Public Enemies (2.5/4) = The strangest problem with Public Enemies is that it?s only interesting. While the characters are well executed (save for Christian Bale), the story intriguing, and the action extremely impressive, it somehow just never engages. Equate it to being the difference between a lecture from a good speaker and a powerful orator if you must.
Moon (3.5/4) = Excellent Sci-Fi with a focus more on the fiction than the science. Sam Rockwell gives a remarkable performance as a man alone on the moon, staving off isolation while unravelling a mystery. Fascinating film with a strong ethical foundation and exceptional cinematography. The only shame is in the finer details of the premise, but Moon is still well worth tracking down.
I plan to make my triumphant return with a review of either G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra (Aug. 7) or District 9 (Aug. 14) . Until then, here?s?
Brüno
Borat, a Kazakh journalist, took over the world with a bizarre sort of charming vulgarity that was as socially revealing as it was hilarious in 2006. Borat is a creation of Sacha Baron Cohen, the man responsible for Ali G, and now Brüno. All three characters were created by him with the intention of agitating xenophobic streaks for laughs, and all three characters are portrayed by him. Not only is Brüno the last of the trio to receive the big screen treatment, it may be surprising to discover that his adventure is the crudest and most outrageous of them all, if only because it was previously thought that the bar for shocking comedy could be raised no higher.
Then perhaps it?s fitting that Brüno is the last of Cohen?s characters to be adapted for a feature film. It made sense for Cohen to take his core character to the big screen first with Ali G in 2002, and his second outing in Borat was largely experimental. With the experiment being a phenomenal success, it falls to Brüno to wrap up this perverse trilogy of caricatures, hopefully through a film that?s tightly satisfying and technically refined. And while Brüno is as hilarious and scandalous as we?ve come to expect, the film itself it sadly not without issues.
For the uninitiated Brüno is an extravagantly gay Austrian fashion television diva who wears ridiculous outfits in the name of the vacuous fashion industry by day, and enjoys various bizarre sexual practices by night. Practices that Brüno is all too eager to demonstrate with the help of his vertically challenged south east Asian boyfriend and home gym equipment modified into various penetration devices. When he becomes the centre of a wardrobe malfunction at Milan Fashion Week, he is exiled from the fashion world, and seeks celebrity in America. With the help of his overzealous assistant Lutz (Gustaf Hammarsten), he embarks on a quest to become famous by whatever means necessary; even if it means giving up men.
Sound familiar? Brüno is virtually identical, both in design and execution, to Borat. This means, for those who are completely unaware of these characters, that Brüno leaves the land he calls home for a rather simple goal. This goal is achieved through conducting interviews with assorted figures of various societal upbringings and through interactions with the local populace in America for advice. The road gets rocky, our heroes fight, etc. Trust me, if you?ve seen Borat, you can safely hazard a guess as to how Brüno ends.
Brüno never deviates too far from the simple path its spiritual predecessor followed, and while it may seem bland to witness the exact same story from different eyes, this would only be a problem if the audience were watching Brüno for story-time in the first place. What this simple foundation allows is the ability for the characters to explore bizarre and often surreal scenarios without being restrained by pesky reality. Quite ironic considering the satiric real world bearing, and all the more impressive because of it.
Far more often than not, Brüno is absolutely uproarious. While some humour does come from the relentless barrage of flamboyant homosexuality impressed upon simple folk from middle America who have little to no experience in dealing with such personalities, Cohen?s sharpest barbs are reserved for celebrity. Brüno wants to be famous, and he does whatever he can to emulate the circumstances that caused Brangelina and Madonna to become household names. This includes hiring an agent, making a sex tape, adopting a child, sponsoring charity events, and even repairing civil strife in war torn countries. But when his aggressive queerness appears to ruin all his plans, he realizes that his orientation is what?s ruined his life, and he sets out to become straight.
While Brüno is consistently funny from start to end, the film as a whole is not without its problems. The first of which stems from the character?s aggressively flamboyant and hyperbolic homosexuality. Poking fun at people?s insecurities and hypocrisies surrounding homophobia is all well and good, and indeed that is the underlying point of the film, but in many ways Brüno simply takes off too strong. Because the goal of Cohen?s creation is to elicit reaction and expose intolerance, Brüno tends to go too far too fast. Instead of testing the water of the situation with some light antics, Brüno goes straight for the jugular and crashes into the scene, firing off queer caricatures on all cylinders. There?s no subtlety or discreetness in the way Cohen conducts himself, and the result can sometimes come dangerously close to the point of exasperation.
Perhaps exasperation is too strong a word. While Cohen proceeds to push several envelopes off several precipices, the offences are never long enough to cause boredom, or at the very worse strong enough to suspect a modicum of malicious intent. And if you are of delicate mind, you have to ask yourself what you?re doing watching Brüno in the first place. The adverts don?t even scratch the surface of the shock content the film offers, so stumbling into the theatre out of curiosity will likely cause you to walk out in disgust within a few minutes.
The second major problem is easily attributed to the creation of the character himself. Whereas we let Borat get away with most of his antics due to his status as a foreigner from a strange country currently developing with aspirations to be like America, Brüno doesn?t have that same benefit of doubt. Brüno is Austrian, specifically from Vienna, and functions in the heart of high culture. After being disgraced in his homeland, he heads to America seeking the fame he feels destined for, and such is the core premise of the film. Because the character is more familiar to what many urban North Americans are used to seeing, we?re less willing to believe that he really can be so vapid and obnoxious. Interestingly enough, this fleet comfort has the dual effect of meaning that Brüno must work harder to entertain us. So while the film knows that the audience is demanding of a more abrasive character to compensate for familiarity, it doesn?t have our immediate sentiments to rely on in order to know when they?ve gone too far.
For the most part, the balancing act between what is comfortably crude and what isn?t is navigated through cleanly. Unfortunately, there are moments when the stars align against Cohen and he ends up going over the edge in the wrong direction. Such is the incident where Brüno decides that the key to fame is a sex tape, and intends to share the scene with 2008 presidential candidate Ron Paul. The entire affair is uncomfortable, lacking not only an effective punchline, but a designated spot in film as a whole. It?s one of those scenes that certainly sounds funny on paper, but really only serves to illustrate how far Brüno is able to exploit powerful people.
And really, that?s what Brüno ends up being all about. Cohen takes on fame and celebrity because real people have already been victimized by him. Because people said that Borat could only be the first and last of its kind, it seems therefore that Cohen intends Brüno to be a direct statement that there is an infinite number of fools; that no one is ever safe, and that the concept can be effectively reduplicated. Borat was harmless, but Brüno is vindictive. And it?s hard to imagine it working any other way.
* 2 Bonus Capsule Movie Reviews *
Public Enemies (2.5/4) = The strangest problem with Public Enemies is that it?s only interesting. While the characters are well executed (save for Christian Bale), the story intriguing, and the action extremely impressive, it somehow just never engages. Equate it to being the difference between a lecture from a good speaker and a powerful orator if you must.
Moon (3.5/4) = Excellent Sci-Fi with a focus more on the fiction than the science. Sam Rockwell gives a remarkable performance as a man alone on the moon, staving off isolation while unravelling a mystery. Fascinating film with a strong ethical foundation and exceptional cinematography. The only shame is in the finer details of the premise, but Moon is still well worth tracking down.
Confederate Wing [http://confederatewing.blogspot.com/]
