Astonishing, For Starters

Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest film, “Bruno,â€� has offended many. To start, a sedate Rashad Robinson of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation says: “Sacha Baron Cohen's well-meaning attempt at satire is problematic in many places and outright offensive in others.â€�

   Ted Baehr of the Christian Film and Television Commission is a bit brisker: “Bruno is the most vile, perverse movie ever made by a mainstream movie studio.â€�

   Even your humble reviewer, a hardened veteran of B movies and author of a college thesis maintaining that “Night of the Living Deadâ€� is a better piece of pure cinema than “Citizen Kane,â€� even I squirmed during “Bruno.â€�

Like the earlier “Borat� (2006), the fictional and decidedly foreign Bruno (former host of an Austrian TV show — "Funkyzeit" — ostensibly about fashion) makes his way to America. Bruno is much hipper than Borat, however, and rather cannily exploits the mechanisms of American celebrity worship to create his own image — to become "the greatest Austrian superstar since Hitler."

   So he tries out as an extra in a TV drama (nope) and bombs with his own celeb interview show. (A member of the focus group watching the pilot says “I’d rather poke out my eyes with white-hot needles,â€� and another chimes in: “He’d have to borrow the needles from me.â€�)

   He adopts traditional celebrity publicity tactics — like trading an iPod for an African baby, who he gives the traditional African name O.J. He meets with image consultants about worthy causes to get behind, which leads to a splendid scene in which talks between Palestinian and Israeli representatives founder as Bruno confuses “Hamasâ€� with “hummus.â€�

And in what might be the most bizarre encounter in a film filled with them, he attempts to seduce Texas Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul.

   Alas, most of the strangest and most memorable moments in “Brunoâ€� cannot be discussed in a family newspaper. But if you think you might have a problem with repeated gags revolving around gay sexual practices or the human rear end in general, better skip “Bruno.â€�

   The film might also be troublesome for people who take the Middle East seriously, or Libertarians, or karate instructors, or hunters, or guys named Donny, or swingers, or Latinos, or rednecks, or African-Americans, or members of the U.S. Army, or fashionistas, or . . .

   Just like “Borat,â€� “Brunoâ€� suffers because the frantic pace cannot be kept up. The only way to prevent an audience from tiring of the same joke is to keep reiterations coming fast.

   But the shock factor can only be ramped up so far, and midway through “Brunoâ€� there’s been enough weirdness to last a lifetime.

   Full credit, however, to Cohen for reinvigorating the exploitation film (not to mention getting it into the mall). “Brunoâ€� exploits the caricatures in the screenplay, the American obsession with fame — and the suckers who fork out their money to sit through it.

   Astonishingly ghastly. I recommend it. p

  “Brunoâ€� is rated R for sexual content, graphic nudity and language. It is playing at the Movie House in Millerton, NY, and elsewhere.

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