Ich is amused

Had to see it...


Sacha Baron Cohen revels in the uncomfortable. The only hang up being that his latest character, Austrian TV reporter Bruno, sometimes puts the audience in the same position as the unknowing victims he humiliates.
Whereas 2006’s “Borat” had Cohen exploiting common conceptions of American views on foreigners, he tackles the gay community in “Bruno” using both nudity and questioning to make everyone he encounters uncomfortable in some degree or another.
He’s outrageous, unbelievable, and daring. But those are the qualities that make all of Cohen’s characters successful. He’s so completely immersed in a role that it ceases to be a role at all.
So when Cohen plays the gay fashion obsessed Bruno, there’s no holding back. Seeing the not-so square peg try to fit into boot camp, or hunting trips is hilarity in discomfort. But when situations get graphic, and they often do, there’s a discomfort for the audience to have as well. When he one ups himself in terms of nudity again and again, there’s wonder what sort of movie Cohen could have made without having to cater to ratings officials. The R rated movie he did make often times nothing short of pornography, granted there’s a certain situational humor to it, but not everyone has the same taste for the tasteless.
But the scenes that are for everyone are the situations Cohen builds that define irony. When he turns a MMA event into something completely different or an interview with Paula Abdul into a lesson on hypocrisy, the audience can find hilarity in the “jokes-on-you” subtlety that Cohen does best.
Mix that with a dash of shock-value, and it’s quite clear Cohen strikes again, with poignant accuracy. If you can stomach some uncomfortable encounters with the Bruno and his lifestyle, then the ones he has with the rest of the world are worthwhile windows into Cohen’s genius.

dessert