If you've seen Sash Baron Cohen's 2005 hit Borat you know what to expect from 'Bruno'. Shot fly-on-the-wall documentary style, it follows fictitious Austrian fashion icon Bruno as he attempt to gain worldwide celebrity status...by any means possible. As with Borat there's a loose narrative running through the movie as Bruno's assistant tries to make his love for his boss a little less unrequited. After that it's the usual series of comedy skits where unexpecting celebrities or members of the public are duped into revealing their prejudices or hypocitical nature. Or just to make them feel plain uncomfortable or look stupid.
As with Borat, Bruno is extremely funny. You're either crying with laughter, gawping in disbelief at the extent of people's (mainly dumb Americans) prejudicies, cringing as Baron Cohen pushes his targets to physically dangerous responces and squirming as good intentioned people are made to feel uneasy. On the serious side, it's a revealling insite into the mindset of many segments of contemporary culture with regards to celebrity, sexuality, politics, religion, climate change, media and family values.
If there's a downside, it's that Bruno as a character isn't as outright daft and naive as Borat, and so it loses a degree of bite. But thats only a minor quibble; Bruno makes up for it in Hitler gags. The Austrian government are not best pleased.
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