14 DAY TRIAL // When “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” was released in 2006, most critics agreed that never in their life had they seen anything so offensive and outrageous as that mockumentary. That is because they had not yet seen “Bruno,” another Sacha Baron Cohen production, scheduled for release in July 2009, 22 minutes of which have just been screened at SXSW. From what people in the audience are saying, “Bruno” will be yet another “monster hit.”
“Bruno” stays true to the technique brought to perfection in “Borat,” namely that of pretending to shoot a documentary with the purpose of catching the most unexpected reactions of the interviewed when asked stupid questions or faced with an aberrant behavior. Although most of the details of this project have been kept under close wraps, this much is almost certain, several movie-oriented publications are pointing out.
What is different in “Bruno” is that Cohen plays the part of an eccentric fashionista and fashion correspondent from Austria trying to get a feel of the “real world.” So far, the British comedian has crashed several fashion shows while in the Bruno character, just to get the shocked reaction of the audiences on tape. From what fans of the actor are now saying on Twitter, he has done more than a wonderful job in this sense.
“Bruno scenes suggest a film that is more aggressive, more offensive and better executed than Borat. Very, very good.” rodneydp says. “The sneak peak of Bruno was outrageous, insane, offensive and incredibly hysterical. It trumps Borat, if you can believe that.” evilry adds. “The ‘Bruno’ footage we saw Sunday night was legendary. I’m not sure I’ve ever laughed so hard at anything. And I don’t even like humor!” EricDSnider also agrees, while jamesrocchi is of the opinion that, “3 scenes from Bruno? Funny. Wildly, paralytically funny and brilliantly trasgressive; the proverbial button gets pushed to individual atoms.”
With this and the initial reports that Cohen integrated a Black character named Jesus (dressed in cloth and wearing a crown of thorns) that have already generated a minor controversy in the British media a while back, fans will probably have a much-mediated but funny film coming their way this summer.