Tag: Borat

‘Bruno’ brutally funny
by Zachary Woodruff
SignOnSanDiego.com (The Union Tribune)
July 10, 2009

Baron Cohen’s latest prank scores without the cruelty of ‘Borat’

If you look up the word “prank,” among the older definitions is this one: “A trick to make people stare.” Thanks to movies like “Bruno,” comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s follow-up to “Borat,” a newer definition would have to add “or look away.” Prepare to squirm, or worse: As one of the subjects/victims in the film’s myriad setups says after falling prey to Cohen’s antics, “I wanted to poke my eyes out with hot needles.”

My own reaction also involved pain, not to the eyes so much as the stomach: “Bruno” is laugh-out-loud, sucker-punch-in-the-gut funny. With a comedic barrage of shock, irony, slapstick and ongoing discomfort, you probably won’t know what’s hit you, and you’ll likely lose your balance. Especially during a full-screen full-frontal of what in this case could appropriately be called a tallywhacker. (You’ve been warned.)

Obscenitywise, “Bruno” charts new territory. How much were members of the ratings board paid off to give this movie an “R”? (For a lesson in how far standards can sink in 20 years, look up 1990’s tame “Henry & June,” the first major NC-17 film.) But there’s intelligence and discipline behind the madness. Cohen and his collaborators, including director Larry Charles (the whiz behind “Seinfeld”), have refined their guerrilla game and learned a lesson their previous social experiment, “Borat,” lacked: That it’s enough to make fools out of people without being cruel. No need to call a man’s wife ugly at the dinner table. Let people humiliate themselves on their own. Continue reading ““Bruno” Reviewed”