Brüno

The last time I read a Roger Ebert movie review like the one he gave for Brüno it was for a film called Sick which was a documentary of a guy with cystic fibrosis who chose to take out his anger with his disease on his body. Those masochistic actions made the audience wince more than anything I've ever seen. I had seen the promo's for Brüno and had wanted to see it anyway and when I read the review it spawned that memory of Sick and knew that this would be a good one. Firing up a few pinch hits before, my girlfriend and I went to the afternoon showing of this. While I expected to laugh, I didn't quite expect to see on screen what I and the rest of the packed theater saw.

Note, if you don't like spoilers don't read on.

Brüno is a fashion celebrity in Austria. He hosts his own TV show, picks what's in what's not and is ridiculously gay. The first ten minutes you are introduced to his life and you get to his "boyfriend" a small Malaysian(i think) boy and you get introduced to their sex life; literally. You see the boyfriend working Brüno over with the fuck machine, which is a stationary bike with a pole and a dildo attached to it so when the persons riding the bike it's pumping the dick in and out of Brüno's ass. The next 30 seconds are dedicated to other over dramatic sexual positions which you can't believe you're watching. Brüno's demise comes when he ruins a fashion shoot and officially becomes "out". He decides to move to L.A. to become a big star and takes his assistant's assistant with him. Over the course of the rest of the movie you will be treated to some of the most funny, uncomfortable and ridiculous scenes you've probably seen in some time. There's a scene with Brüno trying to seduce Ron Paul, another with Paula Abdul where he pays mexican workers to act as furniture which she uncomfortably sits on for her interview. Brüno flys to the Middle East where he asks a terrorist leader to kidnap him and picks up a black baby on the way back to the US to get in on the trend of stars adopting african children. He goes on the Richard Bey show and in front of an all black audience brings the kid out in a "Gayby" shirt and announces that he traded his ipod for the baby and proceeds to show a series of very gay situations where he includes the baby in on it. He interacts with an agent which is visibly shaken during a conversation with Brüno as he's getting his asshole bleached. He also interacts with two bubbly blondes who are supposed to be PR reps and encourage's his black baby adoption. She shows a sample pilot show to a focus group and CBS producer which is basically him gay dancing and then showing a cawk; which he proudly says is his and that mouths the word Brüno out of it's Phole. After committing "Carbacide" he ends up tied and bound to his assistant and kicked out of his hotel room by the clearly uncomfortable hotel staff where they somehow run bound and gagged through a "God Hates Fags" protest. He tries to go straight with the help of southern ministers only to end up in more hilarious situations with the army, a group of hunters and a group of pumped up wrestling fans who are beside themselves at what they're viewing in the ring. In the end, Brüno conceeds to love with his assistant and with another black child they got for an Ibook laptop. Clearly playing on people's homophobia got Sacha Baron Cohn a lot of film and I look forward to seeing the outtakes on the DVD.

This is a short 83 minute movie and if you're saying "Borat really wasn't that great so..." give this a view, it's pretty damn funny and pushes the envelope to a point where I can't imagine what you would do to top it. It's a non stop ride and I would highly recommend it.