When Borat first hit theaters in 2006, it became fashionable for hipsters to hold up Jewish comedians of the past--Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, the Marx Brothers--and claim Sasha Baron Cohen pales next to these giants. Personally, I'll take Borat over Duck Soup any day. The fact that this debate even exists says something about Cohen's comic genius, though; nobody makes those claims about Seth Rogen because they do not need to be made.
Now comes Bruno, the story of a flamboyant Austrain fashion journalist who is ostracized in his own country after a disastrous Velcro-related fashion incident and moves to the United States to become a celebrity. After a TV pilot, a Ron Paul sex tape, and the adoption of an African baby he names O.J. all end in failure, Bruno decides the best way to be famous in homophobic America is to become "straight"-- you know, just like Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and Kevin Spacey. He seeks the help of a bigoted Alabama pastor who believes accepting Christ will turn Bruno--Bruno!!--into a skirt-chasing ladies' man.
This might be the ballsiest improv comedy ever made. Bruno informs said pastor that he has "blow job lips." He calls an ex-Mossad agent and a Palestinian "these two queens." He tells a terrorist that Osama bin Laden looks like "a dirty wizard or a homeless Santa." He asks a group of hunters which Sex and the City character they are. He swishes down an all-Orthodox street in Israel dressed in what can only be described as the gayest frum outfit ever.
Oh yeah, and it's funny as hell. Just like in Borat, there is a thin narrative structure that propels the plot and allows Cohen and director Larry Charles to expose prejudice and hypocrisy. Watch Paula Abdul pontificate about how helping other people is like the air she breathes while she sits on a human chair. See a Dallas talk show audience erupt into scary hatred just because Bruno is gay (before he actually gives them a reason to hate him.) Listen and cringe as parents offer their small children to participate in liposuction, riding in cars without car seats or seat belts, and antisemitic Nazi imagery, as long as it gets their kids into showbiz.
Funny, scary, and frighteningly illuminating all at the same time. Cohen and Charles have fashioned another comedic masterpiece. A hundred years from now, some talented new comic genius will make a great, hilarious film, and critics will say that he's good, but he's no Sasha Baron Cohen.
2 comments:
Bruno was hilarious, that guy knocks my socks off.
Thanks for the link to this blog. A film snob who like Spielberg, that's cool. I dig that. You have good taste but you're not pretentious. The title is a great Indiana line.
Bruno was the funniest movie I've seen since Borat and the both of them are the funniest movies I've ever seen, period.
As you say, that there is even a debate about it illustrates that Cohen, if not a comedic genius (I am of the opinion that he is), is in the ballpark.
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