Bruno

Bruno is very, very funny, but not as funny as Borat and therefore a little bit of a disappointment. I watched Borat again to try to figure out why. I think the answer is twofold. One, Borat is a funnier character in his own right. You laugh at him even before he begins to draw out funny reactions from his hapless victims. Two, the satire in Borat is more shotgun than laser. He baits religious nuts with as much enthusiasm as red-neck college students. Bruno is focussed primarily on trying to elicit reactions to his gayness. He is looking for homophobia and the bad news (from the standpoint of wanting to make a funny film) is that, on the whole he doesn't find very much of it. The funniest Bruno victims are the parents who will agree to anything to get their babies a film role and the crowd at the climatic bare-knuckle fight. The least successful are the reactions of Ron Paul and the self defence expert. You feel sorry for them in their efforts to politely deal with this weirdo. Even the anti-gay protesters just seem to want to get away from him. Nonetheless, this is another expansion of the boundaries of what can be shown in main-stream cinema and what people will laugh at. Sacha Baron Cohen remains a comic genius and a very brave one. I can't wait for his next incarnation.