Review of Brüno (2009) by Brendan C — 28 Aug 2013

This movie is just offensive, and degrading as it gets. It was done in the worst taste imaginable, and I can imagine somebody who is gay watching this, and finding it so offensive, because it seems like he is trying to make a fool out of him or her for comedy, which isn't funny at all. It represents gay people in the worst stereotype. Not just the way they are, but the things they do. Bruno's non-stop acts of public homosexuality are degrading, because nobody does the things that he does. This film miss-represents gay people in a way that makes them look really bad, which really bothers me. Not only that, but it is just so graphic that it makes me feel uncomfortable. It is borderline gay pornography, and I found that after I watched it I kept thinking about it, because I had never seen things that graphic before, and because the film bothered me. It made my stomach feel uncomfortable, and almost sick, because of how over the top disgusting it was, and because of how close it felt to watching porn at moments. I am in no ways homophobic, but a film that feels like a porno I don't want to watch.

Now Borat had a very original formula, where Sacha baron Cohen would go around playing some really offensive stereotype doing crazy, and outrageous things with real people, and he would seem to be making fun of people for comedy. It was funny at times, but uncomfortable at others. He would play some foreign character, and go to America. That was what he did with Borat. With this film he did the exact same thing, except it was with a gay man named Bruno, who had a fashion show called "Funkytime with Bruno." He goes to America intending to be a big celebrity, and he goes around doing many graphic homosexual acts in public. He is always talking to real people, and acting as if he is a really dumb foreign guy, while he is actually just a British guy playing a dumb foreign guy. The people he talks too don't even know what is going on, and he angers real people in his films. Borat lead to many lawsuits because of that.

Though Sacha baron Cohen has talent as an actor in my opinion, his style of comedy is uncomfortable and offensive to the max. I wasn't as much as offended by the film, I was just disgusted by it, and I can imagine a million different people being really offended by it. One day at my school a guy from Kazakhstan gave a speech on how people in his country just hate him for Borat. He talked about how much that movie offended him. This movie is about five times as bad, so I am sure the offense given to people by this film is way worse then Borat. Something I see in society today is that humor is way more crude and graphic then it used to be. Crude humor can be good for a while, but after a while things can get too graphic. Sacha Baron Cohen always has to take things several levels too far. Some people like that, but some people like myself hate it after a while. I know a bunch of people who love films like this and Borat, while people like me get uncomfortable during them knowing what he is actually doing during the film.

You don't have to go around doing really offensive stereotypical characters at such an over the top level to be funny if you ask me. The true geniuses in my opinion can be funny, without offending anybody. Something that I notice about the funny comedians who aren't crude or offensive can probably appeal to anybody, while people like Sacha Baron Cohen only appeal to certain people. That guy clearly doesn't care if he offends or angers people, because he does it constantly. I have told people before things he has done in his films, and they got offended. For me the thought of how offensive this film was made me feel bad. It didn't personally offend me, but it stuck with me. This is one of the films I hate the most, because of how obnoxious it is, and I am intentionally being really critical of it to get my strong belief for how films like this should not be made out even stronger. I can appreciate why somebody would find his films to be funny, but I have a really strong distaste for them.