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UPDATES Is ‘Brüno’ Comedy Or “Grotesque Satire Of Homosexuality”?
Queer As Folk star/gay activist Peter Paige wrote me to add to his video remarks:
“Of course the part where I said, ‘I haven’t seen Brüno, so I can’t be sure about this’, was left out. I merely suggested that, having seen the trailer for Brüno during The Hangover, I was concerned about how the comedy was being interpreted by straight men. I understand and appreciate the complexities and subtleties of comedy — and am by no means interested in (or qualified for) being part of the PC police. So there you have it, from the horse’s (soundbitten) ass.”
And now, to be fair, a positive review of Brüno from one of my frequent sources:
For more estimates listed by title, see box office results here...“Nikki, I loved your piece on Brüno. I’ve seen the film. In fact, I was at the first recruited screening in LA prior to them making cuts for the MPAA. First, it was not only one of the funniest films I’ve ever seen, but it was also the strongest recruited screening I’ve ever been to. The audience laughed nonstop from beginning to end. I can’t imagine this film scored less than 95 — top 2 boxes. I’ll admit there were a couple of times where I was watching the film and said to myself, “he’s going too far.” But I hope that he can leave all of this in. I just knew while watching a few scenes that the graphic nature would get cut. Not because it offended gays but because Brüno wouldn’t be able to go so far and still receive an “R” rating.
If gay people start bashing this movie, they’re nuts! The movie is a COMEDY. If it was a drama made by a true gay basher, then I think the gay community would have a gripe. However, I don’t believe for one minute that Sacha had any politically motivated intent while making this film. In other words, I don’t believe he did it to make fun of homophobia for the purpose of a “cause” movie. He made it because this kind of comedy, when he does it, is painfully funny — and he knows it. There’s nothing wrong with that! My guess is when you see it, you’ll laugh your ass off.”
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Moran and Mack are funny.
I wouldn’t worry so much about how straight men might react to Bruno. Contrary to what many activists try to sell, I don’t see much hostility to gay people in the world I live in anymore. 10 – 20 years ago might have been different but people seem pretty accepting these days even if they don’t want to amend their state constitutions to affirm it.
I think the thing that freaked out the straight community about the gay community the most was how personally and viciously gay activists attacked Carrie Prejean for having the gall to have an opinion that was not the same as theirs. If there was ever such a thing as counterproductive gay militancy and closed minded intolerance for public consumption, it was on full display during that fiasco. This episode was more damaging to gay politics than any movie will be. Bruno will viewed by the mainstream as the escapism, satire, or farce (depending on individual viewpoint) that it is and will not be the basis for a societal perception paradigm shift toward gays because of it.
I was at a test screening of the film right before the ratings cuts. (They made people sign releases that you could comment, but I didn’t give them one. Just walked past the release takers and they said nothing).
The film got a lot of laughs, but also had a lot of slow moments. Probably had more walkouts than any test screening I’ve ever seen. Now how much the cuts helped, I don’t know.
My personal feeling was the film had a lot of funny moments, but it got less and less funny as it went on because all the jokes were slight variations on a theme. Also, the situations in general felt more staged and predictable that Borat. A lot of it had a Jerry Springer feel where people are set up to react in a very specific way and didn’t feel as organic to me as Borat. I’d tell people it was a Netflick rental. It will get a lot of publicity, but I don’t see it as a film people will talk about much outside of the “Do you think gsys are shocked?” angle.
I think SBC is a special kind of funny. Bruno was a great character in TV form. But the trailers for Bruno doesn’t look remotely funny. That “OJ” joke is so lame and forced and dated I can’t believe they’ve ostensibly built a campaign around it. The poster is pretty. But honestly, as much as i love crude, offensive, boundary pushing comedy, this just looks like “file under trying too hard.”
Why does it feel like all of these people who have no problem with the movie are hetereosexual? I mean, comedy or no, we all know the power of popular culture. It’s not as if there needs to be more ammo for homophobes to ridicule gays.
I personally think Cohen is a phony. He presents himself as an outsider commenting on the mainstream, but let’s face it, he’s about as Hollywood insider as it gets. He really is in danger of becoming a big bore.
There’s a huge drop down in the quality of film comedy over the years. Can we look at Some Like It Hot and then look at Borat? Please, even Marilyn, where ever she might be, must be laughing at that.
Afraid of Bruno? Offended by Bruno? Honey – we’re all going to dress as Bruno for Halloween. I want that leaopard onesie he wore to the MTV awards….
I find it a bit offensive to say “if the gay people” bash this film. What about the gay friendly people? It is really just a concern, which I truthfully had not thought about until it was brought up recently, that it will set back gay rights 20 years or what not and will cause an increase in gay bashing — which is not something that I think gay or straight would approve of. Yes, it is a comedy and perhaps its much ado about nothing.
Lincoln,
It may be all rainbows and unicorns where you live (and something tells me that might be on one of the two coasts), but homophobia is alive and well anywhere outside a 20 mile radius of any major metropolitan area.
And guess what? The Carrie Prejean fiasco blew up only because one blowhard blogger who in no way represents the gay community decided to ask Miss California her position on Gay Marriage. She would be nowhere and would not have gotten the publicity she did without this fat blog-tard’s lame-ass question and subsequent appearances on Larry King.
Me? I’m reserving judgement until I see the movie.
Lincoln, would you feel the same about Carrie Prejean’s comment if she’d spoken out against interracial marriage? Would this still be defensible as just “an opinion not the same of theirs”? And as far as the positive review posted, the idea that something being comedic rather than dramatic it all ok is laughable– you could make a comedy from a Nazi point of view; would that be funny? That’s just an entirely silly way to try and defend the movie.
Well, I am a little offended by the notion that the main reason a straight people can’t like Bruno is because of the gay aspects. It reminded me of all the stir around “Brokeback Mountain” that suggested that the only reason a straight person wouldn’t love the film is because of homophobia. I wasn’t bothered by the gay angle, or the sex, but I left the film halfway through and moved to another theatre because I was bored.
When I told people that, some wouldn’t accept the notion that I could have simply been bored by the film as a piece of drama (way too slow, too little happening). Some people insisted I had to be bothered by the gay element, and wasn’t been honest by myself.
That’s my trouble with a lot of gay films. Often you aren’t allowed to view them as a piece of drama; they always have to viewed as a political referendum.
Bruno was … okay. Very funny in parts, boring in parts. Unlike Borat, I don’t think I mentioned it or a scene it in to anyone, because it wasn’t very memorable.
Lincoln, I’ll have to remember to let my gay friends know that according to you, they’re seen as completely okay by the American public who are now “pretty accepting these days”. Looks like gay people everywhere can call off their struggle to achieve equality in this country. I guess it is pretty greedy of those “activist” gays to want their rights protected under the law and state constitutions to reflect that. They should take your word for it and call it a day.
And sarcasm aside, no one, except extremists on the right give a shit about Carrie Prejean. Donald Trump, the CONSERVATIVE, fired her for not fulfilling her contract. He defended her on the Perez Hilton issue and only let her go after it was clear she had more interest in filling the flavor of the month, quasi celebrity role for the ultra conservative movement instead of doing what she was brought on to do.
Oh homophobia is not going away. Anyone who thinks it’s better now than ten years ago wasn’t standing with me last month when a car full of fratboys yelled faggot and then threw their food at me. I think the people who say, ‘relax’ it’s all a joke’ haven’t found themselves face to face with real hate.
@ Lincoln:
She is a bigot, and bigots should be ridiculed at every opportunity — especially when their hateful words go out to impressionable kids out there.
Not tolerating bigotry is NOT intolerance. It’s defense of human dignity.
Bruno is just a long-form episode of Punk’d or My Life on the D List that finds people so stupid they think the character making fools out of them is a real person. Just more reality tv crap with a scary overblown caricature of a gay man in the middle of it. None of that will matter… cuz the audience is so dumbed-down at this point it’ll make many many millions anyway.
Lincoln, would you feel the same about Carrie Prejean’s comment if she’d spoken out against interracial marriage?
Your question presupposes that the two situations are akin. Your entire point rests on this assumption, and thus you have no point. Personally, I find the equation of gay rights with civil rights to be ridiculous and borderline offensive. The two are fundamentally different for reasons so obvious and plentiful that I’d feel stupid pointing them out.
And yes, lots of things are made “okay” by being comedy. Whether or not you agree is one thing, but to suggest comedies aren’t given a pass all the flippin’ time simply because they’re comedies is crazy talk.
It’s difficult for me to accept a heterosexual’s opinion that gays are nuts if we don’t like the humor, or how we are presented in the film. That’s like a white person seeing an outrageously stereotypical portrayal of an African American, and saying it can’t be offensive if it’s in a comedy. Yes it can!
Invalid comparison, Steve; the comment was specifically about how straight men might perceive things, which would make them the foremost experts on the topic. In your analogy, it’s about whether or not the portrayal is offensive to the group being portrayed. The quote in the blog entry is about how other groups react to the portrayal. Your example, then, does not apply.
It’s satire. Just as in Borat, SBC’s theme is making fun of the idiot, racist, homophobic American. Just like many clueless conservatives actually believe the Stephen Colbert is a real journalist, not a character, and believe that he’s furthering their agenda, some will see Bruno and it will reinforce their stupidity. There isn’t anything that you can do when people are so clueless.
The beauty of SBC is his attack at political correctness, which has gone haywire. If there are scenes in the film that make you cringe, or wonder if he’s gone too far, then he’s doing his job.
To me, it does the GLBT community absolutely no good having people out there complaining or airing all types of concern when the same people that are being quoted haven’t even seen the film. Just chill out. Bobby from Pittsburgh who’s a homophobe will be continue to be so, whether he watches Bruno or not.
I guess I’ll just have to see it and make up my own mind.
Lincoln – Jon,
forget flyover land, I live in the middle of LA. Try to walk down the street holding hands as a gay or lesbian person, and find out what abuse is hurled at you, what nasty hateful looks you’ll receive, if not a baseball bat to the skull (check the LAPD crime database for gay-bashing if you doubt this). The two places on the planet I’ve ever been (and I’ve been to a lot) where one could feel 100% as a gay person are SF and Amsterdam, not too great a record for global tolerance (let alone acceptance, two very different concepts). Let’s face it, us fags are the last group of people where it’s OK to publicly laugh at and ridicule, this “wonderful” new administration is arguing in court for DOMA and reneging on DADT, etc. This is the reality of our societal context. I’m sure this film works on two levels, making fun of homosexuality, and making fun of making fun of homosexuality. The fact is that the the huge majority of people that sit in the theatre laughing will be in the first group. Does that make the film homophobic? Dunno. Oh, and as for this ditz Miss CA, as Trump pointed out, her views on gay marriage are pretty much identical to our prez. Do you feel he’s a bigot too Luzid? That is, are you a person of principal?
@ Chris:
What’s offensive is people like you not accepting the fact that civil rights INCLUDE us gay people, who were born the way we were.
Our struggle is the same as MLK’s. Don’t like it? Too fucking bad — doesn’t change the truth of the matter.
wearingdinner –
but they didn’t jump out of the car and beat the crap out of you either, did they?
okay, that’s a bad way to start this conversation, sorry.
But the reality is that suburban raised frat boys will not change – and I’m pretty certain they weren’t even sure if you were gay, you were just a target.
I think marks of change are seen in the ability to have an open lifestyle in further reaches of the country without work/ social repercussions, and that states around the nation fighting to recognize gay marriage.
true homophobia is shrinking. idiot frat boys abusing any anyone different than them – is staying constant.
Sorry about your shirt, though =)
Of course it takes a straight man to make the best gay movie of the century. That’s because all of us gay men are trying so very, very hard to be just like straight people all over again. Except for the porn. And the webcams. And the eight-ways. Etc.
And for all those weepy, histrionic people carrying on about their rights: You seem to have missed the point that Bruno is a withering satire of homophobia. So the film should make you laugh and aggrandize your sense of victimhood all over again. What could possibly be wrong with that?
I loved Bruno, anything Sacha does is fabulous. I thought the love story between Bruno and his assistant was beautiful, the scene when Bruno sees his whatever the guy’s name was, march into the cage, and they kiss, was sweet and precious. I’m a grandmother and I love people and I love life and I love good clever movies. If the love story is a satire on gays, who cares, you feel the love there! I was very happy the couple got baby OJ back! Bruno is a love story, and a family classic. Doesn’t anybody see that?