sftiger

Brüno is the most stupid, homophobic movie I've seen in years, just one long, vulgar, shallow caricature of a gay stereotype. Vacuous, self-obsessed Brüno has lost his show in Vienna and wants to be a Hollywood Superstar. What could be a clever skewering of the cult of celebrity just focuses on a tedious parade of fag jokes. The publicity declares that it's supposed to be an exposé of homophobia. Said homophobes only enter the film after fifty minutes of stupid gags about anal sex and bondage, and Brüno is so shallow and unlikable that I felt sorry for the homophobes who were supposedly the targets of this satire, but they only served to make the fag look even sillier than he did on his own. This movie doesn't expose homophobia so much as it exploits it.

Look, I'm cool with over the top stereotypes. I'm not above crude and vulgar. Hell, I dressed up as a nun in mini-habit and fishnet stockings and ran for public office, getting international fame as "Sister Boom Boom," but in my childhood I quickly learned the difference between the "Jewish jokes" told by my Jewish relatives, and the "Jew jokes" told by anti-Semites. Both played on stereotypes, but the simplest litmus test is: Are you laughing with us or against us? As long as you are clearly with us, you can get away with a lot.

A few jokes that struck me as genuinely funny were lost on the young, straight audience that roared through most of the movie as I sank into my chair. Yes, a few moments were genuinely funny, but not nearly worth sitting through the rest of it. Altogether this was not laughing with the gays, but laughing at the fag. Sad. After the brilliance of "Borat" I expected better at least.

It would be interesting to watch the hate crimes statistics and see if homophobic violence edges up in the next week or two. It will be even more interesting to see if Mr. Cohen takes any notice if they do.

This movie does not deserve the controversy and attention of a boycott. Just don't waste your time and money.

What a bomb! Another example of how trying too hard to be camp just doesn't work. If you can imagine a bunch of stoners trying to make "The Three Stooges meet Countess Dracula" and loading it with bare-breasted women you may get an idea of what this is like. Unfortunately the many pairs of boobs make it unfit for 5-10 year old boys who would otherwise be the best audience for this. One pair of boobs just right for the little boys would be the idiot twin sons of the Countess who do a rather intriguing mirroring-each-other pantomime, getting out of bed and starting their morning ablutions. But mostly they're just two stooges in black capes and bad "Transylwanian" accents.

Louise Fletcher manages to glide over this morass, ever elegant and charismatic. Watching her shine so magnificently over the ordure that is the rest of it is rather amazing to see, and the fashion show in the last 15 minutes has some fun costumes. Maria Schneider just looks like she's waiting to get paid. One hopes that she and Ms. Fletcher were getting plenty. Given the production values, either their pay ate up the entire budget, or they were blackmailed into this disaster.

This may rival "Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter" for worst vampflick ever, but at least "JC" was clearly an amateur production. There is no excuse for this abysmal waste of time.

And no, it is not even Ed-Wood-so-bad-it's-good. Ed Wood, bless his soul, took his work seriously enough to give it a quirky charm. Even "Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter" was compellingly weird in its gawd-awfulness. I like quirky bad movies, but this was just pointlessly vacuous.

Poor, poor Louise... I'm sure she's done her best to forget this trainwreck, and so shall I!