Brüno (2009, USA)

I was a little surprised, but Sacha Baron Cohen’s follow-up to Borat is actually just as funny. Whether American audiences will embrace it quite as much is another question – I’m pretty sure that most people in the U.S. are more comfortable with their xenophobia than with their homophobia, and Brüno certainly doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to outrageous shows of sexuality. (Is there full-frontal male nudity? Yes. A lot of it. And it’s hilarious.) The audience I saw it with was definitely more nervous than hysterical during many sequences.

While I applaud Baron Cohen for making the riskier movie, one of the things I missed in Brüno were the interview sequences. Always a highlight as part of Da Ali G Show, Brüno’s one-on-ones with fashion/celebrity/lifestyle glitterati were expert at exposing their shallowness and the shallowness of our culture in general. More sequences like Bruno’s conference with the idiot charity PR twins would have been awesome, but I don’t think I would have traded them for the amazing Alabama camping sequence, or the accidental attack on God Hates Fags protestors. After a pretty steady fame-oriented opening, Brüno becomes more and more about the character’s sexuality, and the horror and disbelief he elicits from the people he meets in small-town and southern America, culminating in a truly amazing finale. Audiences would likely find Brüno more palatable had he concentrated on Hollywood and Milan, and the box office returns would likely have followed suit, but Baron Cohen’s risks pay off in a film that’s just as audacious and hilarious as its predecessor. (The less said about Ali G Indahouse, the better.)