DVD Reviews

Bruno

• Rating:
• Director: Larry Charles
• Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen
• Details: US / 83mins (16).

Is Bruno as funny as Borat? That's the question everyone wants to know and, just in case you're in a hurry, the answer is no - but it's a photo finish. Using the same faux documentary set up as Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen takes his new creation - a "19-year-old" gay Austrian fashionista - on the road and pits him against prevailing homosexual prejudices (Defamer's faux title spelled it out - Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt). But Cohen isn't content with just that: during the lean 83 minutes he finds the time to poke fun at celebrity culture, the empty desire for fame and hypocrisy.
Bruno, the self-proclaimed "biggest Austrian superstar since Hitler," hits America with dreams of becoming famous. Why? Because it's fabulous, that's why. He tries everything: he attempts to be an actor (even landing an extras role in a courtroom scene for Medium), interviews others on what charity is deemed cool, and he even has a shot at bringing peace to the Middle East. When they prove unsuccessful Bruno settles on adopting an African baby, whom he "swapped for an iPod" and his appearance on a Texas talk show as a result is one of the funniest sequences in the movie. However, the funniest (and the scariest) moment is left to his interviews with parents who are prepared to do anything to get their kids on TV; one is prepared to subject their child to 'amateur science', another has no problem with putting their baby on a cross. One mother would even subject her child to liposuction. This after the talk show audience go berserk that a man like Bruno would be allowed to adopt a baby. Oh, the hypocrisy. Paula Abdul, Harrison Ford (in the briefest of appearances) and 2008 Presidential candidate Ron Paul, whom Bruno mispronounces as RuPaul, are just some of the celebrities the supercamp accosts.
The first ten minutes are shaky: Lacking the originality and the surprise of Borat, Bruno looks to be more scripted and staged than its predecessor, but once it finds a groove (pun intended) it doesn't stop. Bruno might be tackling easy targets but Cohen puts himself in real danger at times: he asks some anti-gay protesters to unshackle him (and his partner) from a bizarre sexual contraption, he's chased by angry Hasidic Jews, and a flying chair at a UFC bout misses him by a whisker. Brave stuff - Cohen's commitment to the gag is probably the most outstanding attribute of the movie.
Borat in tight pants it may be, but Bruno is far more than just a rerun. That might be down to the fact that it's hilarious. Where does Cohen go from here? Another one of these might be too much, but I'd still watch it.

Review by Gavin Burke