Brüno (Larry Charles, 2009)

In probably his last throw of the dice at punking the dimmer end of the American public, Sacha Baron Cohen ups the stakes from his Ali G and Borat outings by presenting a character who's bound to rub his targets up the wrong way from the off. Brüno, his 19-year-old preening and screeching Austrian queen has none of the matey bonhomie of the former or wide-eyed enthusiasm of the latter, being outright abrasive enough at one point to bait a black TV audience with his purchase of a black baby in Africa and then show off his collection of worryingly paedophilia-tinted family album snaps to them. Besides, the conservatives he zeroes in on may have been taught to hold their tongue as regards their racism, but having aggressive homosexuality thrust in their faces pushes them too far. Baron Cohen exploits this to full effect, of course.
There remains a doubt over much of it whether he's being braver than ever, exposing what needs to be exposed, or just shooting fish in a barrel for the sake of extending his comic life, with a lot more obviously staged scenes than before. While the disappointing fact that the basic plot and many of the scenes are just rehashes from Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan does point towards the latter interpretation, neither can the other readings be denied.
It's funny to note here, though, that despite setting its stall out so blatantly as a vehicle for homophobe-baiting, not only does Brüno get a lot of mileage out of ridiculing the screaming end of the gay spectrum, but also scores more points when laying bare wholly other glaring hypocrisies and excesses. If Baron Cohen does go back to the medium for a fourth crack, he might want to consider taking these moments on board and go for something more focused and understated.

6/10