"Brüno" (2009) - Movie Review

With the knowledge of the reputation of Sacha Baron Cohen’s and not watched any of his characters, TV show or films, I went in and the preparation is still useless. “Brüno” is a film heavily surviving on the reaction of its audience and it succeeds. Larry Charles directing this mockumentary has the committed actor and performer Cohen. Many people forget that his performance carries lot of potential risk wherein he does not work around actors but real people with real beliefs, moral code and who can bludgeon him to pulp of the antics he puts up. Whether he is intruding into the privacy and disturbance of the public is debatable but the camera out there tells some obvious presumptions. I began as a kid entering his first roller coaster and scared. I am not joking but Cohen brings the real person in people. He takes it far and deliberately exemplifies the possibility of a character amongst us which would reevaluate certain behavioural tolerance. He does not expect his audience to like Brüno, he wants to laugh, hate and then in a spur of that heightened hilariousness shows the morality and the conflicting guilty pleasures.

The gayer than gayer Brüno is an Austrian and a TV show host losing his celebrity status. The film is the venture of reclaiming that fame in the nation of United States along with other countries becoming stops for laughs. Cohen makes the stereotype and then thinks the freakish obscene activities no one wants to see or even think about to make the character perform those. Many of the people he meets while are spooked does not gets suspicious of the gag. In the living media world of tabloids and reality television, anything is possible and anything passes. In this mode he has lowered himself beyond imagination and the people crack in unbelieving honesty.

There is a plot which guides the path of explicit nudity. Rarely have I seen people walkout of the theater and this after noon show had a few not able to withstand the penis dance. Films while depend on the reactions, shows what we are made of. We conveniently avoid those confrontations in the regular life and Sacha Baron Cohen attracts his audience with a premise and burst the images right in the face of the people (literally).

He comes to the epitome of celebrity chaos, Los Angeles. There he finds a famous agent and beyond the ludicrous display of acting, the agent manages to get him as an extra in a television series “Medium” and even persuades CBS to have a focus group in seeing the pitch of his TV show. A TV show which I might not be surprised to inspire someone to get into VH1 or MTV. Cohen mocks the situation of the media stooping to the worst possible sensationalism.

There is a loyal assistant Lutz played with a sincerity close to Cohen by Gustaf Hammarsten. He follows Brüno like a puppy and does his chores. Brüno goes on being himself and not alone ruins but creates a giant black hole to suck in the normalcy. The steps he gets into for becoming famous are nothing but satirical, spoof and a little bit of homage. With no tiring, Brüno tries again and again in achieving his status of fame. He tries a TV show, fails gloriously, pursuits for a sex tape and he lures Ron Paul, the presidential candidate into an interview and then a private moment in another side room, and decides to adopt a baby when he makes a stop in Africa. He auditions for kids and reveals a deadly scenario of how parents are desperate to get their kids on to the path of fame. More than Brüno’s shocking images, it is the real people in an unheard honesty reveal details of scary thoughts. Finally he realizes what he is missing and decides to go straight which becomes the best part of the film.

Brüno is not sensationalism but an idea taken to the extreme seriousness. The people doing it are dead serious about their agenda. They pick the people and while at any time expects the people to flip out. The people like psychics, gay converters, “strong” men and the macho outlook of the National Guard are both made to look normal by Brüno and freaks their audience with their confessions. It is a satire which takes a method many will not like or cannot stand.

Brüno is destined to be offensive and painfully funny. Many times I was not sure whether I really need to laugh at this. But the mind reacts to those and laughing becomes an involuntary action. Whether I acknowledge the acts or what is it? While Cohen wants his audience to laugh out loud, he creaks in another level of human mind into it. He brings the side we do not really acknowledge and in that we confront ourselves. “Brüno” is daring, offensive, explicit, beyond explicit, satirical and unbelievably funny.