Last night I ventured up route 9 to have what I knew would be a perplexing experience. I saw Bruno Sacha Baron Cohen's third feature-length adaptation of one of the fictional characters on Da Ali G Show. Ali G Indahouse was the first, and it did not impliment the same Candid Camera gotcha tactics that Cohen later perfected with his 2006 blockbuster Borat. Cohen's been messing with people from the getgo, but Borat's barrage of simple ignorance and latent misogyny that Cohen cloaked with earnesty was groundbreaking. I'll never look at a rubber fist the same way again.
In Bruno, Cohen plays the titular character, a "19"-year-old, gapingly gay Austrian fashion reporter who's simple desires include fame, sex with props, and clothing. After a falling from the cold graces of the European fashion congregate (who I think were in on the joke, but genuinely got pissed when Bruno committed the faux pas of ruining a fashion show), Bruno trapses off to America in hopes of becoming the a huge, gay movie star. He is a miserable actor, so he pitches the idea of a celebrity interview show to his agent, who actually manages to get him a focus group at a network (how whatever network it was didn't know who Cohen was is beyond me… maybe they just didn't tell the focus group). The show, which he calls "Celebrity Max Out Mit Bruno," features a segment that debates whether or not pregnant celebrities should get abortions and, presumably, Bruno's penis which he spins about like the tassle of a pasty (it fills the screen of the movie theater). Needless to say, the members of the focus group are offended; they jut got full frontal.
And this is where the problems of Bruno come in. Blogger Rich Juzwiak at fourfour put it aptly: "If you trip over a rainbow flag, what it represents becomes secondary to its obstruction." Remember, the working title to Bruno was Bruno: Delicious Journeys through America for the Purposes of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-shirt. Cohen's mission, and maybe even Bruno's, is to make people uncomfortable. He does so in a way that transcends his gayness, like parading the African baby he smuggled into the country infront of an all-black talk show audience (whom he calls racist) in a t-shirt that says "Gayby."
Bruno's homosexuality is his identity in that he fulfills the stereotype of anti-gay bigots. He swishes, he lisps, his wrist is limp, he wears lip gloss, he frosts his tips. Borat was a buffoon, but he was subtle (at first) and he got people to do some crazy shit before they got hip to his jive. Bruno, on the other hand, reveals nothing we don't know already: there are lots of Americans, some of whom are either hillbillys or Christian nutjobs, who hate gay people. We've seen the "God Hates Fags" signs. We've seen pray-your-way straight ministeries (though I don't think anyone's ever told a minister that he has perfect blowjob lips). What Bruno does is confirm the fears of the people who are stupid enough to think that all gay people are like him; he fuels their hate.
Besides re-revealing the ignorance of chunks of the American South willing to chant "Straight Pride!!", Bruno also reveals a similarly dispicable lot; stage parents. Knowing that these deviants are somewhere out there squirming because of this movie almost makes the whole thing alright.
