Sacha Baron Cohen claims his anti-Semitic Kazakhstanian alter ego Borat Sagdiyev is used as a means to lower the guard of interviewees and expose their own intrinsic racisms or indifference to racism. What then does Bruno, his homosexual Austrian character, expose? The irritating, effrontery with which Bruno conducts himself ruins any chance of garnering a real reaction or anything that can be considered social commentary towards homosexuality, leaving nothing but sketch after sketch of people staring aghast at his repellant buffoonery. This is most evident in the scene where Bruno tries to seduce Congressman Ron Paul. As soon as Bruno drops his pants, Ron Paul goes running for the door and the “I can’t believe he just did that” aspect of it doesn’t hold up. Even on Cohen’s “Da Ali G Show,” Bruno always seemed like a superfluous character, best taken in small doses and used mostly to show the superficiality and hyper-self-seriousness of the modeling and fashion world. But that’s a very limited target, and in the film it’s largely ignored in favor of Bruno’s narcissistic aims to become famous. This is largely used as enough reasoning to subject his interviewees and – by default us as his audience – to uncomfortable, upsetting situations and a whole lot of unnecessary frontal male nudity. When the film is working it is genuinely funny, but that occurs from time to time only when Bruno takes a back seat to his “guests” and allows their views to come through (such as in the hunting scene, the talk show scene, Bruno’s conversation about his attempted conversion to heterosexuality and his interview with the parents of child models). Otherwise, it’s a huge misfire. And Cohen doesn’t seem to know who or what he’s trying to target. In or out? Ish don't think so.
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