Year: 2009
Running Time: 82 minutes
Rated: R
SRP:$ 39.95
Studio(s): Universal Studios
Release Date: November 17, 2009

Film/Feature: B
(In Borat’s voice) Larry Charles and Sacha Baron Cohen’s extremely pop-u-lar 2006 film, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, put people on alert. Beware of an Anti-Semetic man with a camera behind him. This man, he have great powers, to show… people’s prejudice. I like him very-much!

Cohen’s latest film, Brüno does much of the same, this time, in a different costume, in the character of Brüno, a flamboyant Austrian TV host as the fish out of water, and plops him in Hollywood to seek out fame. He hires an agent (Lloyd Robinson as himself) to create the Brüno brand in the City of Angels. Brüno (Cohen) observes the star map of fame and like an instruction manual, follows in their footsteps: he tries to get his own talk show, start a charity, adopt an African-born child (Chibundu Orukwowu), and even, act straight. Surely, if successful, one of these will give him the reward of fame.

This time around Cohen never breaks character to hijack fashion shows, boot camps, sex parties, the Hollywood scene, blue-collar folk, and again, that bottomless pool of material, the Bible Belt of the USA. Brüno flaunts his over-aggressive sexuality onto men–unsuspecting or otherwise–who wouldn’t know a joke if it slapped them in the face with a 13-inch sex toy. Paula Abdul, Pete Rose, Latoya Jackson, Ron Paul; they all couldn’t escape him.

The degree of good taste or sensitivity is worth a debate, but Cohen and Charles are trying to get answers to the following questions: How far will people go to become famous? Would parents compromise their children to be famous? Is prejudice against race any different when it’s about sexual orientation? How vapid and removed are celebrities from their own common sense and independent thought? Can someone rid themselves of their “gayness” as easy as following a four-step plan? All of those sound like ludicrous questions but Charles and Cohen discover in some parts of America, it is quite the contrary. As Cohen found out with Borat, being openly prejudice put people at ease with their own prejudice. Here by being not just gay, but outwardly gay, prompts some of the strongest reactions out of people.

Only when Brüno is alone with his ex-lover, Diesel (Clifford Bañagale) or his personal assistant Lutz (Gustaf Hammarsten), does Brüno sing out scripted. Some parts are staged with a little bit of coercion, but nowhere near as much as one would hope so to think better of humanity. I’d say over 80% of this insanity is real, improvised on the fly. If the film is even 50% genuine, it succeeds on that level of guilty shock cinema. For example, in an attempt to get famous by bringing world peace, Cohen and Charles go as far to go into parts of the Middle East and mix it up with terrorists, Hasidic Jews, and representatives from countries at war with each other. He spends another night camping with four, very homophobic hunters who are armed. The film builds towards the end when Brüno risks his life just to show just how much hatred can be inspired with the public affection between two men. Cohen’s life insurance policy must be unimaginable! At the end, Brüno does get the fame he’s looking for in a more classic method, by getting some of the biggest music stars to perform on the song, Dove of Peace. It’s a perfect denouement, to an insanely bizarre amusement ride.

Borat and Brüno were both brands from Cohen’s HBO show, Da Ali G Show, where he created a pool of eccentric and extreme characters, when set to interact with real people, unrehearsed and filmed guerilla-style, reveal a canon of unbelievable genuine reactions. The unfiltered, unedited gullibility, sheltered-views, prejudice, phoniness, and brainwashing of people can serve as a scathing satire of the world we live in; realities so scary it’s funny and so funny it’s scary.

Mockumentaries have been around since Woody Allen’s Take the Money and Run in 1969, and was popularized by Rob Reiner’s This is Spinal Tap. Christopher Guest later built a career around them. Now mockumentaries are a dime a dozen and some have evolved into something new, where there is a question of what’s real and what’s not. A wild step-brother of mockumentaries are real documentaries that appear so off-the-wall, or so incredible, that there’s no way of them being real; but they are. Take for example some of the work of Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock. Through the comedy of real life, comes the horror of the real world. The work of director Larry Charles and comedy sketch genius Sacha Baron Cohen, though, is a twisted hybrid of all of these, mixed with the high risk stunts of MTV’s Jackass. It’s the uncertainty of not knowing what will happen and the shock of what actually occurs that puts these types of mockumentaries on a different level.

The outright stupidity of Borat and his maxims may seem more universal to audiences than Brüno’s plight to compromise himself to be famous. Some people may avoid this film because it features a gay character or that it has male nudity in it. (As if the images of male nudity are so powerful, they can change one’s sexuality.) I am being a bit sarcastic, but know that type of fear and apprehension is the stuff that Brüno taps into. It’s not everyone’s cup of Glühwein, and I can respect that, but there’s no doubt here that Brüno is a brilliant piece of comedic work.

Video: B+
Brüno’s picture is brought to you on blu-ray through a 1080p encoded , high definition transfer in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. There’s a variety of cameras that were used to film this movie. From its rather elaborate high definition set up in Milan Fashion Week where the video looks awesome to the various handheld cameras used to shoot Brüno’s run-in with the God Hates Fags organization, where there’s lots of grain. The range of picture quality runs the gamut, but that variation doesn’t take away from the overall experience.

Audio: B+
The audio scales all the levels of quality, but in this mockumentary style film, the 5.1 English DTS-HD audio track is going to be a lot more than what’s really needed, but it’s much appreciated. The most important thing here is how well the dialogue sounds out of the center channel, and it’s near flawless in that respect. The settings, whether it be outside, in an enclosed room, or a voice over affect the quality of those particular scenes; so consistency in the audio is not a high point, but no one is going to notice that to the point where it’s noticeable. Other audio selections include: 5.1 DTS French and Spanish DTS tracks and subtitles are available in English SDH, French, and Spanish. I happened to use the subtitles a lot just to see how some of the clever made-up Austrian/German words that Brüno says are spelled. Wünderbar!

Extras: A-
All of the menus are in German (with english translations) in what’s a cleverly designed menu.

The Audio Commentary by Sasha Baron Cohen and Larry Charles is one of the best commentaries you’ll ever listen to because you FINALLY get the real stories behind nearly every scene of the movie. This is an enhanced commentary so sometimes Cohen and Charles will pop up in a picture-in-picture box and stop the video to explain what was real (most of it, believe it or not), and what was staged. They discuss early on in the track that they built the film around the Milgram Experiment, the infamous science test that sought the limits of obedience, devised to work out how the Nazis got people to do things without much fight. They wanted to see how much people will tolerate? Another interesting scene they had a good story on was their struggle with the MPAA and the mime scene, to which they said, “If you know what’s going on, you’ve already been compromised.” The only moment in the commentary where it gets weird is during the scene with the terrorist, Charles and Cohen drop their conversation to add in their special thanks. There was obviously some clearance issues with that scene. Charles and Cohen share some of their guerilla filmmaking techniques and methods to avoid Cohen from being arrested, and jeopardizing his foreign visa. Having been someone who has always wondered about the stories involved with Cohen’s films, because he rarely does interviews out of character, this was one of the most satisfying second viewings I’ve experienced.

An Interview with Lloyd Robinson HD (5:32) is a straight interview who thought through the entire shoot that Brüno was a real person.

Alternate Scenes HD (5:42) shows the much rumored Pete Rose scene where he sat on the people furniture, and other hotel interviews with former UN Ambassador, John Bolton; President of American Values, Gary Bauer; and former Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge.

Deleted Scenes HD (40:45) Lots more stuff that was cut out including the LaToya Jackson scene (which was taken out of respect to Michael Jackson), Fashionveld Montage, Partymeister, Hollywood Hausvendors, Haus Designenfraulicke, Texasche, Sczientischtenmann, Feuerwaffe Gun-Party, Fessel-Center, Anti-Schniedelmesiter Festival, and a Blu-Ray Exclusive scene, The Middle East.

Extended Scenes HD (22:39) is more of the same stuff that was in the film but with much less editing: Baby Casting, Wedding, Second gay Converter, Swingers, Agent Meeting, Focus Group, Dove of Peace, and the Blu-Ray Exclusive scene, National Guard.

BD Live is enable for My Scenes

Universal Ticker shows what’s coming up for Universal Studios.

HD Trailers for Public Enemies and Inglorious Basterds show up

A second disc is included as a Digital Copy Disc for portable digital transfer to other computers and handheld devices.

Overall Shock Value: A-
After seeing Brüno a second and third time on blu-ray, I’m still shocked at what people will do to be famous, appalled at how people act when they are at their most comfortable, and I find all of it arrestingly funny. Everyone won’t agree with me, but that’s to each viewers’ level of comfort with this type of satire and humor. Technically, the film is what it is, and the commentary and extra footage on the blu-ray takes the home experience of Brüno to another level. If you’re uneasy about alternative lifestyles then I say, give it a rental, you never know, you might be enlightened by the overall message. If you’re completely sheltered and you’ve made it this far in this review, then go at your own risk, but know you’ve been warned; but if you found Borat to your liking and are open-minded to seeing a similar film with a fierce twist, then I highly recommend Brüno.