Brüno

Saw Brüno, a reality/prank film where star Sacha Baron Cohen pretends to be a flamboyantly gay guy pursuing stardom. As with Borat, he provokes people into uncomfortable situations, this time using the strange otherness of homosexuality as his tool to do so. Some of the scenes seem a tad staged but not many and not very. The threat risk that Sasha has pushed his victim too far this time and will finally provoke violent retribution is the engine of this film. That and also strange people being mocked.

I have complicated feelings about this film. It made me uncomfortable but I don't think it's entirely Sasha's fault. I'm a little annoyed that he's perpetuating stereotypes so hard, particularly the stereotype that gay people have lots of extremely imaginative sex. At one point, he handcuffs himself and one of his assistants, in elaborate bondage gear, to a bed and calls the hotel staff to come and unlock him. When the hotel security guard shows up however, he takes one look at them and walks right back out the door again, muttering "I can't deal with this." Their penises were covered, their hands were locked down. They clearly weren't going to do anything to him, but just the sight of two guys in a sexual situation was too much for his tiny mind. I mean, this is a prank film admittedly, but ordinarily people do have sex in hotels. Sometimes they injure themselves or get into embarrassing predicaments but you should help them nonetheless. What if they needed a doctor? "Oh man, I can't deal with this!"

So the film is deeply uncomfortable. Part of that discomfort stems from Sasha performing an offensive stereotype but part of it is the exposure of homophobic, sex-phobic attitudes in society. In some scenes I feel nothing but sympathy for Sasha's victims (as in the scene at the swingers party, or the scene where he goes on a hunting trip and hits on his fellow hunters) and other times I feel he's picked some very low-hanging fruit (rampant homophobia at an MMA-style boxing match? No!) but there a few scenes that hit the balance just right and show me something that I didn't know was there. I don't know that those few glimmers of insight make up for the rest of the film but maybe.