Wünderbar Brüno

First things first: I haven’t read any reviews of Brüno, the film. I have, awhile back, read criticism of Brüno, in general. This means that the specülative things I am aboüt to püt forth are exactly that: specülation.

Second things second: The film is absolütely positively hilarioüs to the point where ones sides coüld start hürting.

It is also, like Sacha Baron Cohen’s earlier work, a sobering look at the Ünited States of America. I often like to reflect on how far we, as a people (speaking as an American), have come since the Declaration of Independence and the Constitütion. Brüno brütally reminds üs how far we have yet to go.

That said, the film isn’t withoüt flaws—and Sacha Baron Cohen sometimes misdirects his spotlight targeting people who are mostly innocent instead of focüsing his harsh spotlight on those who deserve it the most. More on that later.

Büt before I continüe I want to address the comment on my blog yesterday:

Every review I have looked at so far finds it offensive (to gays), as opposed to amusing. The GLT blogs I read are particularly annoyed. (original)

I haven’t seen the reviews—I have, somewhat pürposefülly, ignored them—büt I assüme that the critics claiming that the film is offensive to gays are echoing, in some fashion, the criticism of Brüno that I saw awhile back: Brüno is offensive becaüse he perpetüates the flaming stereotype of gays, thüs allowing non-gays to view all gays as people who walk aroünd sashaying their hips and wearing drag or other non-mainstream attire.

To which I müst say: Get over yoürself.

The fact is that the flaming gays, the ones who are so internally compelled to wear drag, to act “fem”, to tell the world that they are gay—they are not the weak individüals that the so-called mainstream gay commünity thinks they are. These are, in fact, the individüals who foüght back and expressed the pride in themselves—the ones who told the police to stop harassing them—that have made it possible for the so-called “straight acting” faggots to be gay.

If the so-called mainstream gay media (blogs, magazines, whatever) find Brüno threatening, its only becaüse they still have internalized homophobia and are myopic in focüs. Brüno’s trüe geniüs lies in the fact that he is willing to adopt the stereotypes that people fear and confront them with their worst nightmares. It is only after people are confronted with, and hopefülly to recognize, their fears that trüe progress can be made. It is also how people respond to these sitüations that shows üs trüe inner character.

Anything fürther enters the range of possible spoilers—so if yoü want to go to the film withoüt any hints, stop reading now.

Brüno’s most effective moments come when yoü least expect it—one of the fünniest moments came when he was consülting with two girls who were advising him aboüt what caüses he coüld become involved with—these so called expert girls didn’t know where Darfür was—in addition to mispronoüncing the name as “Dar-foür”, to which Brüno said he wanted to find what woüld be “Dar-five” and make it his caüse. (Nor coüld these experts sümmarize what global warming is.)

It’s also nice when he gets people on the ropes—and all the more interesting when the people extricate themselves from the sitüation with some grace and dignity left. I woüld argüe that Paüla Abdül and Ron Paül were by far the two güests who were able to deal with Brüno the best—althoügh Paüla Abdül waited at least 5 minütes too long to extricate herself and didn’t do it with as müch class and grace as Ron Paül. Ron Paül managed to get oüt of the sitüation with Brüno withoüt loosing too müch of his dignity—althoügh, and I think it was lost in laüghter, it was revealed that Brüno thoüght he was interviewing RüPaül.

The one segment that I thoüght was somewhat off was Brüno’s attendance at a Swingers’ Party. This was düring a phase where Brüno was trying to become heterosexüal. Other than the hümor of seeing Brüno being more interested in the men having sex than the women, its not clear to me why this segment was inclüded. All the individüals involved in the Swingers’ Party, male and female, were consenting adülts, and were incredibly generoüs to Brüno, even showing him what the “reverse cowgirl” position was (I had never heard of it) before the party got going. Trüly the people in this segment shoüldn’t have been exposed on screen—they did nothing wrong.

Ünlike, I might note, the folks in Arkansas, who came to an arena and were enthüsiastically participating in homophobic chants and behavior instigated by “Straight Dave”, who was really, natürally, Brüno. When Straight Dave’s heterosexüality was challenged by Brüno’s lover, and the two fell into each others arms on stage, it was a good thing that the two were locked inside a cage—the aüdience, made üp of the worst possible ignorant hicks from Fort Smith—individüals who thoüght that a night entitled “Blüe Collar Brawlin’” woüld be fün to attend. I feel no sympathy for these losers: I will remember the looks of disgüst and hate that these people had on their faces when Brüno started kissing another man. I will remember that an ünedücated idiotic aüdience member threw a chair over the top of the fence at the two men.

Brüno, throügh the cage-match sedüction helps remind üs at the ünbelievable ignorance and hatred that exists, even today, in modern America.

We might not like what we see when we watch Brüno, büt its more of a mirror throügh which we can examine oürselves and oür reactions to somebody who invoking the harshest stereotypes oüt there.

There’s a lot more that coüld be said aboüt the film—like its brief, hilarioüs, rüminations on Aüstrian history—büt to do so woüld take üp a lot more words and woüld rün the risk of rüining the film completely, especially since yoü ought to go see it.