Brüno (2009) dir. Larry Charles
Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen, Gustaf Hammarsten, Clifford Bañagale, Chibundu Orukwowu

***1/2

It comes as no surprise the ‘Bruno’ wasn’t as successful as ‘Borat’. While Borat cleverly poked fun at America's ignorance and hospitality, “Bruno” puts the country’s own conservative homophobic fears in their faces like a big ol' floppy dick.

I doubt if the financiers who greenlit this project even looked at the script or treatment (or whatever written form this project was in before production). I imagine they saw the film as ‘Borat 2’, and indeed, like the previous film, Baron Cohen and his compatriot behind the camera Larry Charles once again get into costume and run amuck in real live situations.

If you’re living under a rock “Bruno” is another alter-ego of Sacha Baron Cohen (who is positioning himself as the new Peter Sellers) – an Austrian homosexual fashion critic. Like Borat, a dramatic narrative is interwoven into the real world manufactured situations. Bruno desires to be famous, and by watching the talent-less celebrities of America’s reality stars he decides to come to the U.S. to make it big.

Once ashore he gets an agent, and engineers a career as a celebrity interviewer. Among the real people duped by his false personality is Paula Abdul who conducts an interview in an empty room using the hired moving help as furniture. When his journalism career alone doesn’t pan out he decides to adopt an African baby for some trendy notoriety, which produces a number of tense situations. Then Bruno comes to realize that perhaps being gay in America is holding him back and thus seeks out ways to un-gay himself. Within the absurd madness emerges a love story between Bruno, and his assistant Lutz which helps Bruno accept his homosexuality.

My main criticism of Borat was that the film worked best as a compendium of skits, no better than what we saw in his ‘Da Ali G” TV program. “Bruno” works better as a feature film for two reasons: First, the character of Bruno is more self-aware than ‘Borat’ and thus works on several intellectual levels beyond the slapstick. Second, the narrative throughline in 'Borat' which seemed forced and disconnected from the gags, feels natural to this story and to the Bruno character.

Between these two films, Sacha Baron Cohen will likely be seen as a groundbreaking genius of comedy. Few artists can stand beside Baron Cohen for his sheer courageous audacity and supreme audience-accessible entertainment. “Bruno” and “Borat” are both minor miracles.

“Bruno” is available on Blu-Ray and DVD from Universal Studios Home Entertainment

Religulous (2008) dir. Larry Charles
Documentary

***

Anyone who has seen Bill Maher’s talk shows knows his opinion on religion. This travelogue documentary, in which he attempts to ‘discover’ how and why most of the educated world still clings to seemingly obsolete notions of religion, serves as a 90mins one-sided forum for Maher’s extreme opinions. Alas, it's often uproariously funny.

From the trailer parks of red state America to absurd evangelical compounds to the offices of ultra right wing Washington the Evangelical Christian movement are like ducks in a barrel. All religions are on target too. Extreme Judaism, Islam, Scientology all get shit upon as well.

Often Maher and his subjects are talking at cross purposes. No one makes the simple argument to combat Maher that the purpose of religion is not to follow it to the letter, but, in the case of Jesus, to use the example his pious life to improve one’s own. Maher concentrates on battling with zealots who refuse the word of science and make blockhead arguments for the real life existence of the mythological aspects of Christianity.

Like it or not, the film is as much about Bill Maher as it is about religion. Maher carries himself with an impenetrable confident swagger. He arrives at each interview armed with the weapons to battle any argument for religion. Most of the time he’s debating with people with less intellectual skills than himself, and so it’s easy-pickings.

If the film were about an honest and fair debate about religion we could fault Maher and Charles for their carefully-chosen subjects, but the film is about comedy. In fact, it could be argued that Maher’s global tour arguably is a standup routine masquerading as documentary. Like when comedians appear as guests on the Tonight Show, they can disguise their gags in the form of answers to interview questions, the wacky evangelists and zealots serve as sounding boards for Maher’s well rehearsed jokes.

Larry Charles is perhaps too blunt to intercut the absurd ridiculousness of his cooky crazies with bizarre retro videos to pull a few laughs. It’s a cheap tactic from the dirty book of propaganda 101, but with a certain degree of shame I found myself laughing.

If Maher weren’t so damned funny and articulate “Religulous” would be easy to dismiss. With a degree of guilt and maybe a confession at the end, we are given permission to laugh. Enjoy.

“Religulous” is available on DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Religulous Movie Trailers