Movies

Movie Review: Brüno is Here, He’s Queer, Get Used to It

Guest Review by Johnny M (Because Chance can’t bring himself to see this movie.)
Title: Brüno
Director: Larry Charles
Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen, Gustaf Hammarsten

Brüno (Sacha Baron Cohen) is the flamboyantly gay and questionably competent host of Funkyzeit mit Bruno, “the most important fashion show in any German-speaking country…that isn’t Germany.” After he crashes a Prada fashion show while wearing a disastrously malfunctioning suit made entirely of velcro, Brüno finds himself blacklisted by the fashion community. Determined not to be put down, he and his long-suffering assistant Lutz (Gustaf Hammarsten) set out for America, where Brüno intends to become “the most famous Austrian since Hitler.” Brüno follows a style and set-up familiar to Cohen’s last project, the wildly successful Borat. Whereas that film used a clueless foreigner to betray American’s racist and xenophobic attitudes, Brüno is adept at satirizing homophobia, fashion and the intense celebrity worship that grips the public and the media. Cohen’s ability to stay in character is famous, and he fully inhabits Brüno in every frame. It’s very easy to forget that what you’re watching isn’t a true piece of documentary film-making. Brüno’s not nearly as likable a character as Borat, however. Whereas Borat came from a place of innocent ignorance, Brüno is a shrill caricature. But that’s entirely the point.

(More after the jump.)

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