The title just makes you think its silly to begin with, which is good because it is. Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt I worry about the success of this film.
Why? Not because I disagree with the content. Borat was genius. It exposed some naked truth about American culture and we had a laugh doing it. It was brilliant. I LOVED it. So why would I already be worried about Bruno? Because before it comes out we will already know half of the movie.
Already media sites and blogs like this one are reporting on Bruno filming and talking about what is going on.
– Crowds in Arkansas came for the lure of cage fighting and $1 beer, but police say what they got instead was men ripping each others’ clothes off and kissing
– Corner California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and ask him some questions for his upcoming film Bruno
– Fetish wearing gays share a touching goodbye at a Kansas airport complete with an attention grabbing suggestive dance routine.
– Political analyst and Former Mossad Agent Yossi Alpher gets scammed by Bruno in interview
MitBruno is a website dedicated to Bruno Sightings and his antics.
And that isn’t the half of the movie that I am talking about us knowing about. Trailers spoil more scenes than the media has exposed already. Originally I was worried that people would catch on too soon and recognize the Bruno character and connect the dots. But people are falling for his routines all over the country. This is just a testamony to Cohen’s incredible character portrayals. If it was Borat 2 they might have figured it out. But very few people know Bruno.
The genius of Cohen’s first mock-doc outting Borat is that it was created in virtual silence with dramatic events and outrageous outcomes without ANYONE in the media catching on to what he was up to. Even seeing the trailers, Borat just looked like a gag film – Practical jokes and situation comedy. People showed up in droves to see this movie just to watch Borat in awkward situations. What they got was deep commentary disguises as cheap laughs.
Bruno loses this element of surprise. We are already aware that this character will be doing the same thing while attempting to expose a deeper truth to its audience. And we already know the message.
Repeatedly the sightings are preceded with reports of some documentary maker getting release forms signed to be interviewed on the topic of American culture and world trade.
So am I saying the movie will suck? Not at all. I am sure Cohen’s delivery will be spot on. He will not break character no matter what. He is shameless and will do ANYTHING on film to try and get the reactions he is hoping for and piles more he never anticipated. In that this film is destined to shine.
However, where my anticipation drops is that he has done it already and hoping to do it again. But the environment of the film has changed. The audience expectations have changed. This time I worry, Cohen will face more than a homophobic nation of unsuspecting public.
Do you think this film will have the same impact?
