Bruno (2009)

Directed by: Larry Charles | 83 minutes | comedy | Actors: Sacha Baron Cohen, Alice Evans, Trishelle Cannatella, Candice Cunningham, Sandra Seeling, Todd Christian Hunter, Tom Yi, Ben Youcef, Emerson Brooks, David Hill, Amy Tiehel, Alexander von Roon, Kea Könneker, Paul Barba

Life is beautiful for Austrian Brüno (Sacha Baron Cohen). As a reporter for ‘Funkyzeit’ he is a welcome guest at fashion shows, he is always dressed in the latest and most expensive fashion and he is very happy with his friend Diesel (Clifford Bañagale) with whom he has a lot of sex. experiments.

In this busy, fast-paced life, Brüno does not see the good Lutz (Gustaf Harmmarsten), his assistant’s loyal assistant. He doesn’t even know who this inconspicuous man is who worships him from a distance. But when Brüno destroys a fashion show in Milan due to an experiment gone wrong, he is no longer welcome anywhere. Lutz is then the only one who continues to support Brüno, who has been vomited by everyone. Brüno then becomes obsessed with only one idea of ​​revenge: to become famous at all costs in order to take revenge for the incurred disgrace. To achieve this goal, he leaves for America and tries to make a name for himself here in various ways. He devises formats for television shows, he wants to work for high-profile charities and in the process he adopts a black child in Africa, which he takes from a cardboard box off the conveyor belt at the airport to the astonishment of the bystanders. In his pursuit of success, nothing is too much for him and he knows how to antagonize the necessary people.

Like ‘Brüno’, ‘Ali G Indahouse’ (2002) is based on a character by Sacha Baron Cohen, but it is a real film with a head and a tail and there is character development in the main character. ‘Borat’ (2006) was a series of funny and actually uncomfortable scenes, but it wasn’t a real movie because of the lack of the aforementioned things. The same applies to ‘Brüno’. Many scenes are hilarious and the over-the-top corniness makes it a pleasure to watch the film. But if cut into pieces and broadcast that way on television, no dramatic suspense would be lost. Very clever is the way in which Sacha Baron Cohen again manages to shake people off their balance by asking them questions in a serious way that no normal, well-educated person would ever ask anyone else. Such as the pastor whom Brüno consults because he wants to become straight and to whom he suddenly asks in the middle of the conversation whether he is really not gay, because his lips are excellent for sucking someone. The good man remains in the fold at this nonsense, but his despair is visible. And the way Brüno manages to provoke genuine anger in several men by questioning their masculinity, really only by being gay openly and with a lot of unabashed pleasure, is more than just funny, it gives a staggering picture of worlds from which you don’t really want to know anything.

‘Brüno’ is a series of exuberant, hilarious scenes that amusingly ridicules the fashion and celebrity worlds while also exposing the homophobia that is still rampant without too much effort. It is nice that Sacha Baron Cohen does not portray a character that is only ridiculous in his self-righteous smallness, but he mainly makes Brüno a tragic hero. That’s why it’s all the more unfortunate that this isn’t a movie you should see on the big screen, a DVD, on the other hand, is really something to look forward to.