Miscellaneous Movie Musings

[innerSpaceman]

Bruno was highly amusing. I started laughing during the studio logo that starts the film, and didn't stop for 90 minutes.


But I'm curious about something. The movie mostly hinges on the Sacha Baron Cohen tradition of punking people. I don't know how that worked in this case.

In Borat, if memory serves (and that film did not imprint itself on my memory), the character was a sort of media correspondent who was interviewing people - and thus had a pretext for a camera being present.

In Bruno, most of the scenes are not "supposed to" be being filmed, and yet they are. How does the presence of the camera interfere with the "punking" process (for lack of a better term)? Clearly these people know they are being filmed. Just as clearly, the movie is funny only to the extent these are unscripted and somewhat honest reactions to the outrageousness of Bruno.



I liked the movie way better than Borat. On one hand, I saw this at the cinema, so that gives an advantage to a comedy. But mostly it's because I saw some larger "point" being made about teh gey and all that. I didn't sense anything like that in Borat.

I also found Bruno more consistently funny ... but maybe that's just my personal sense of humor.



Anyway, I recommend it. But I really want to know about the filming circumstances and how "in on it" some of these subjects were.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Borat's scenes had varying degrees of "in on it". A good chunk of them were of the variety where people were told one thing was going to happen and be filmed and then while they were expecting that, Borat made his appearance. Not having seen Bruno I can't be sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was a lot of, "We're filming a documentary or a tv show or whatever" and then Bruno arrives.

[Gemini Cricket]

I'm in the didn't like Bruno camp.

Spoiler:

I found maybe a quarter of the film funny. A lot of it fell flat for me. One of the reasons for this is that Bruno's character is unlikeable. There's no reason to like the guy. I found myself liking the Borat character during the first five minutes of the film. Bruno was (pun intended) a d!ck. We had no reason to invest so much time in him and feel for him. Some of the time, I felt for some of the punk-ees. ie. Ron Paul. I'm not a fan of Ron Paul's but I did kinda feel sorry for him.

I also think that Sacha Baron Cohen overestimates his audience. I think open-minded people will get the jist of what he's doing but there is a high level of ignorance about GLBT issues in our country. Lots of the people in my audience were cheering on the gay haters in the film. That's not a good thing, imho.

Also, after some initial moments in the film, the film has nowhere to go. The scenes at the beginning were so over the top that everything else after that seemed tame.

I found myself covering my mouth in a couple of places. I couldn't believe what he did in certain scenes. I mean, honestly, he could have been killed in one or more of the situations he put himself into.

I also found his assistant to be a weak character. His wrestling partner in Borat was much better, much more likable.

Also, is full-frontal male nudity becoming more accepted by the MPAA? If so, I think that's good.

Yes, idiots who think that gays can become straight through prayer need to be lampooned but even that moment seemed to fall flat for me.

There was an interesting moment at the end of the film where Snoop Dogg says something like "Bruno's gay and that's okay" something like that. That felt tacked on to me. It was sort of a post Prop 8 "Hey, homos, African Americans are okay with gays, really" moment to me. But thanks for the bone, Dogg.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

Yes, idiots who think that gays can become straight through prayer..

On the other hand, if gay people really were as obnoxious, aggressive, and abusive as Bruno seems to be (haven't seen it, don't plan to see it, but have seen him doing the character) then I might find god just so that I could pray for him to be made straight.

[innerSpaceman]

I think I liked that Bruno was (almost) as stupid, vapid, cruel and clueless as the people he lampoons ... and yet still, for me, retained something sympathetic about his character.


Choice of venue is important. I specifically went out of my way to avoid a theater that I presumed might have a more gay-basher-friendly audience. And the crowd I saw it with was laughing throughout, as was I.


Borat did nothing for me. Perhaps because I didn't relate to the character Baron Cohen was spoofing while playing Borat ... but I'm obviously all too familiar with the types of people Bruno's character spoofs.


It also might have helped that I saw Bruno before any reaction was "out there." Borat had been hyped so much by the time I saw it, I may have had unduly high expectations or an ingrained prejudice to be less lemming.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

I liked the movie way better than Borat. On one hand, I saw this at the cinema, so that gives an advantage to a comedy. But mostly it's because I saw some larger "point" being made about teh gey and all that. I didn't sense anything like that in Borat.

Borat did touch on some concepts of poor people in struggling countries and xenophobia in America. I thought he did a good job of sprinkling that stuff in without ruining the basic "Jackass" concept.

Regarding cameras everywhere, I would assume it would be easy for them to say "we're filming a reality show" and let the cameras run.

I don't feel any pull to see Bruno.

[Gemini Cricket]

SFW. Yeah, the film most likely will suck, but I looooove this Prince of Persia photo:

Spoiler:

[Alex]

See, I'm excessively straight. So I see that picture and think:

"It is really amazing how a person can appear to have, but not actually have, a unibrow."

And then I'm off wondering if it would have been really that hard to find someone slightly less white (yes, I know he's half Jewish) to play a Persian.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

I love men. I find that photo, however, to be hilarious, and not at all sexy. The hair is ridiculous. The stance is silly. And I just don't find the actor all that hot to begin with.

Perhaps I need to see Brokeback to understand.

[JWBear]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

I love men. I find that photo, however, to be hilarious, and not at all sexy. The hair is ridiculous. The stance is silly. And I just don't find the actor all that hot to begin with.

Perhaps I need to see Brokeback to understand.

I have to agree on the hair and stance; but generally, I do find him to be kinda sexy.

The first thing I thought when I saw the picture was "Less hair, more beard please".