Sascha Baron Cohen took the success of his Ali G Show to unparalleled success when he released Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. So what seems like forever after that first film set some unprecedented comedy and cultural commentary, Cohen has been working really hard to duplicate the success with his overtly homosexual character Bruno. And you can get your first look at the South by Southwest Film festival.
Universal Pictures recently announced that this weekend at South by Southwest (SXSW) 2009 in Austin, there’s going to be a sneak preview screening of some Bruno footage at Fantastic Fest on Sunday, March 15th at 11:00pm.
In this new film the flamboyant Austrian fashionista Brüno (Sasha Baron Cohen) takes his show to America.
As much as I loved Borat for its absolute genius disguised as low brow shock humour, I just don’t see myself enjoying Bruno.
Bruno was brilliant as it insulted American culture and had them laughing along with it, and it was brewed on the premise that Borat was a real journalist and seeing the real and genuine reactions of those he interviewed. I just don’t see the same thing happening with Bruno.
In most of the sneak clips we have seen, Bruno simply acts flamboyantly gay in public and waits for people to react. That would get tired for me after about 3 minutes.
so um, which parts of borat did you find intellectually stimulating? was it the public urination? no no, it had to have been the nude wrestling in the hotel-room. no? well, surely your intellect must have been satiated following the staged kidnapping of pamela anderson.
did i enjoy borat? sure, i loved it. though i wouldn’t exactly proclaim the movie as “intelligent”. sure, it provided the audience with an outlook on some of the absurdities of american customs, but it was often presented through crude or “shocking” methods.
incidently,film journalists tend to prioritize documenting the shock appeal because it captures the reader’s attention. this is not to say borat wasn’t witty…in my humble opinion, it certainly was. the wit, however, revealed itself through interviews or other intimate social interactions with people (something that is very difficult as a journalist to write about).
(in anger) Oh my fucking gosh! I hate that guy.
I also hope Cohen doesn’t simply go for shocks with this one.
In the television show, Bruno actually relied far less on provoking people with outrageous behaviour than Borat. Whereas Borat would usually provoke people to utter racist and anti-Semitic statements by saying the same things first, Bruno’s interviewees would say the stupid things unprovoked and he’d just encourage them.
I hope he does more stuff like the fake “In or Out” fashion show where he made two fashion experts change their opinions on everything, contradicting what they said seconds earlier. Or the time he made a fashion designer ramble incoherently about how “light” and “heavy” his show was.
The Bruno movie has potential to be clever, but I fear the shock side of the character will take over.
I agree that this movie doesn’t look like it will really have much intelligence behind it. But then I don’t really think Borat did either. Despite the fact I did love the movie.
It’s not exactly shining a light on a horrible hidden homophobia in society by having a character act flamboyantly gay, doing obscene things in public, and watching people’s disgusted reactions. Go film a heterosexual couple having sex in public, and I doubt you’ll see a very accepting reaction to it. Go film an openly straight stripper performing in front of a church, and you could capture similar outrage. My point is, offending people is not exposing a prejudice, it’s just crossing a line of their moral sensitivities.
As much as I loved Borat, it hardly exposed racism. If I acted like a dickhead; insulted people; shit in a bag and invited a hooker to a dinner party; made a mockery of the US national anthem, or anything else Borat did, chances are people would be MORE offended, due to the fact I’m white and speak English properly. If anything, Borat was probably cut a lot of slack by people, because they were being tolerant of the fact he was foreign.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Borat. It’s a great comedy, and the reactions were hilarious. I just believe that maybe some people want to think it was a little more intellectual than it really was, to explain why they found humor in it.
If Bruno just tries to be funny, I’ll probably enjoy it far more than if it tried to be all preachy.
Rodney.
you said yesterday i had no right to think Russel Brands Stand up routine was AWFUL after watching the first 10 minutes and deciding to turn it off….
well, i guess the same could be said about your dismissal of a movie you havent seen ONE minute of..
in fact all you know is what youve read about it….
but once again, your OPINION is always right.
Yes Heath, that is exactly right. My opinion is always right. That’s why its an opinion. You get to have one too. Shiny!
And I didn’t say the movie WILL suck, and I didnt say it DOES suck, I said the very premise of the film doesn’t interest me because they haven’t shown anything to suggest it will have the same intelligence as Borat did.
See.. thats anticipation based on facts already presented.
If you want to say you hated the first 10 minutes of Brand’s standup and turned it off. That is fine.. which I stated yesterday as well. But you siad the whole show was garbage and you turned it off after 10 minutes. Maybe he would have sent you into giggle fits at minute 15.. maybe not. But you dont know.
How does that shoe taste?
This is going to be hilarious!
Oh you’re just being contrary Rodney. One could have easily reduced their expectations of Borat to a movie with a bunch of foreigner jokes before seeing it.
Maybe start flinging that sort of thing at it at least after you’ve seen a trailer or something.
There has been a lot of news about scenarios that he has been spotted staging and all of them so far have just been shock.
If there is no deeper intellectual side to this, it will be no better than Jackass. Which would be a waste considering the genius that was Borat.
But that’s the thing, it’s just been news report… not actual edited footage, I think that makes a difference, it’s a movie, not new reports
i don’t think he’s making cheap humor, the actor is better than that IMO, but we’ll see once the movie is out
Well I can’t really judge until I see it. I mean its harsh to judge from the stunts he’s been doing, like the two men kissing and people getting angry, like we only know what happened, we don’t know how they will edit it. I bet Borat also looked like a dumbass movie from the outsiders perspective. Wait for the finished proyect, yes right now it seems like “moments of homophobia to get a cheap reaction” but at the end the product may be something entirely different.
I don’t know, I’d wait for the actual movie before dismissing it as “cheap reactions”
OMG Bruno is my favorite character! Borat just acted ignorant and stupid while Bruno pushed the boundaries of conservative notions. Bruno is awesome, my favorite skit on the AliG show was when Bruno had those college guys during spring break wrestling around with their shirts off and at the end informed them they were on gay tv.
::sigh:: Rodney how is it you will defend DBE but look to find a problem with what looks to be another amazingly funny movie from a trusted and talented performer?
Because the true genius of Borat doesn’t look like it will translate into a bunch of gay jokes.
Yeah, he will make people uncomfortable showing men kissing at a wrestling match. Whoopie… he already did it in the first movie.
Rodney, u will be shocked to find when this movie comes out…how funny itll be…im telling u…
borat is borat
but bruno is another big ass monster…itll be funnier
ull see…
borat showed how racist the US is still at heart
bruno will show us how homophia is 2nd next to racism in the uS at heart…
ull see
and im not gay
and im not homophobic…
ill laugh my ass off…
You don’t have to be gay or homophobic to get his character.
The point is that this movie will try to expose moments of homophobia to get a cheap reaction. Unlike the first movie which hit on all sorts of culturual issues, this is just going to dance around one.
And after one scene of people getting angry at the sight of two men kissing, the movie will have lost any deeper statement that made Borat so funny.
I’d rather watch Ali G reruns than this.
do we really need a movie to show how homosexist and racist people are? isnt it already obvious?
ps: i say homosexist b/c homophobic mean you have a fear of homosexuals, and im not afraid just disgusted
I dont think exposing moments of homphobia is any cheaper than Borat exposing moments of racism. Plus Bruno covers a bit more than sexuality, such as exposing superficiality in the entertainment media and sending up the fashion industries’ self importance.