Review - Brüno (8/10) - 2009: This Movie Is SO Gay!

Excuse the pun within the title, but this is my first official movie review (in the world of blogging; minus the foul language, bad grammar and slang), so let's see how it goes.

Sacha Baron Cohen is once again at the height of controversy in the movie world dating back to his original mockumentary character Ali G, originally cast in 1998 during "The 11 O'clock Show." Whilst Ali G was less risqué in his interview methods, it showed potential for things to come later, as with the hysterical Borat Sagdiyev (2006), and of course this latest installment in Cohen's repertoire.

The story follows Brüno, a 19 year old homosexual fashionista who wants to "make it big" in Hollywood by becoming a celebrity, and will do literally anything in his claim to fame. When the synopsis for the movie first came out, I'm sure that nearly everyone, myself included, would sit through a funny movie on the scale of Borat, but perhaps slightly a bit more uncomfortable through homo eroticism. This went beyond most boundaries I could even imagine, even so much as to cut out numerous scenes with graphic images in Arabic countries, leaving the film much shorter than the worldwide 81 minutes run-time, and was recently banned in the Ukraine.

Surely this is the type of coverage Cohen wished for, which started off with the infamous Eminem publicity stunt at the MTV Movie Awards (see below):



Admirably, in a mark of respect to Michael Jackson, a scene featuring La Toya Jackson was removed from the final edit around a week before cinema release. Some people may disagree with Cohen's overall intentions, however this act shows that he does in fact, have moral standards.

While Borat was nominated for an Oscar, I feel that Brüno does not contain the secret ingredient to compete in the same category. Numerous activists have complained that the film promotes homosexuality, whereas others argue that it in fact promotes homophobia. It is down to the individual how they feel about the issue. However, I do believe that if people could just sit down and watch the movie and take each of the scenes with a pinch of salt, rather than delve into the depths of morality and potential underlying meanings and connotations, they'd enjoy life a lot more.

I personally did not notice a single person who wasn't enjoying themselves during the cinema's premiere locally, however the most graphic of scenes did leave the majority of cinema-goers clasping their mouths with their hands and trying not to look, wondering just how far the imagery was going to go. This movie is not for the feint-hearted and a certain swinging full-frontal section of the movie will haunt my dreams for a long time, regardless of how prepared for the movie I was or not.

For those who have not seen Brüno, or would like to see if they could handle all 81 minutes of similar humour, below is the official trailer. However, I must warn you that it does contains spoilers and if you simply want to remain breathless, startled and in hysterics throughout the film, I recommend that you skip this link.



I have rated this film 8/10 because I think it is potentially the most shockingly graphic movie I have ever watched at the cinema, whilst remaining extremely intelligent throughout interviews that involve real people, and retains the comedic genius and laughs throughout as found in Borat.