By Simon Abrams
[Brüno is now playing in theaters.]
While watching Brüno, Sacha Baron Cohen's latest parody of American narcissism and bigotry, another cinematic prankster came to mind: Lars von Trier. Both Cohen and von Trier delight in mocking the abject intolerance of what they coyly identify as the American temperament. The obvious difference between von Trier's as yet unfinished "America" trilogy and Cohen's two acerbic films however is that von Trier does not let his audience into his confidence. Von Trier makes a point of telling us that the joke is on us while Cohen encourages us to laugh with him at his vulgar stunts.
And boy, are they gross. It's kind of amazing that Brüno finagled its way out of its original NC-17 rating considering the ludicrous amount of nudity and offensive material Cohen toys with.* He deftly transitions from one gross-out gag to the next with commendable aplomb, juggling swingers parties and black babies with the greatest of ease. Cohen doesn't waste any opportunity to rub in the inadequacy of any given group, from a talk show's sassy African American audience to attention-hungry, charity-crazed celebrities (the shaming of Latoya Jackson is glorious, though now removed). He stops at nothing to establish the film's punchline, namely turning Brüno into the apotheosis of, as Snoop Dogg calls him later in the film, "The White Obama."
Cohen's dedication to outlandish misanthropy has thus made him capable of making a better stunt film, one that does not rely on intellectual challenges or infantile inside jokes about being "the greatest filmmaker in the world," no matter how funny those may be in passing. He's surpassed von Trier in his ability to make us squirm at a funhouse reflection of our own inadequacies. Every scene where Brüno looks like he's about to be beaten for his impishly mean-spirited jokes invokes a sick kind of sympathy. These scenes ask us to root for a man that's laughing at pitiably delusional people, which is almost as mature as kicking a dead puppy and calling it a victory.
As in a scene where he earns copious, breathless laughs from footage of a personal encounter with an aggressive, belt-wielding stripper with a Michelin-sized rack, Cohen makes us laugh at not just at our own prudishness but at our fear of being caught laughing. As Cohen gets whipped into submission, the awkward scene becomes more and more funny thanks to the expectation that eventually Brüno's unwitting foil will do something really dangerous, taking the joke to a new level of physical violence that Cohen obnoxiously courts with each potshot he takes.
That threat of violence creates such an unyielding bond of complicity with our star jerk that it's no longer possible to joke, "That ain't me." The immediate aggressiveness of Cohen's comedy is oddly enough what makes it so endearing. It's fitting then that the film's most memorable scene is a montage sequence of slowly swinging dicks that ends with a shot of an erection pointing straight out at the audience. There is no escape from Cohen's hip-thrusting.
FOOTNOTE: *I wish all "provocateurs" had a big studio behind them to grease the MPAA's palms, too; maybe we'd be able to see Antichrist get a PG-13.
Simon Abrams writes about comics, books and movies for the Comics Journal, the L Magazine, the New York Press and Slant Magazine. Since last year, he's been obsessively keeping a film journal where he writes down something about every film he's seen.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Bruno
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8 comments:
I have a question. Before I post it, I want to let you know that I'm not some right wing, flag waving patriot. I believe that each nationality, each country have their own collection of flaws, or they share similar flaws with other groups. But my question is . . .
Have Sasha Cohen and Lars von Triers ever mocked or exposed the bigotry and narcissm of their fellow Europeans?
I haven't seen this movie yet, but, whenever I read about its tactics, the way it purportedly exposes homophobia, it reminds me of a story Norm MacDonald told about going on MTV Beach House (remember that?). The host of the show offered a guy in a bathing suit 20 dollars if he would lapdance Norm, and Norm, not being into that sort of thing, got up and ran.
And then when he came back, everybody was like, "Oh, Mr. homophobic...won't let a naked man grind his ass into you."
Juanita: No, which is what makes their comedies (or in the case of Von Trier, dramas, too), as critiques, imperfect. It's a problem I have more with Von Trier than Cohen b/c Cohen's comedy is happily more superficial and immediate and hence more effective in unnerving the audience.
Z: I don't think it exposes homophobia so much as it uses people as scarecrows to poke fun of. I'm not laughing at some stereotypical redneck b/c he's afraid of a naked guy creeping up to his tent, I'm laughing that there's a naked guy creeping up to some guy's tent knowing that that guy is going to do the physical equivalent of a spit-take. BRUNO is not a film that exposes individual people's problems so much as it laughs at the troubling behavior they exhibit. The reaction that his pranks induce is more important than the individuals he's targeting.
@ Juanita
Besides the fact that lumping Europe into one collective nation state with one collective seam of bigotry/narcissism makes as much sense as thinking of the US as represented solely by one state; Sacha Cohen did start out lampooning British public figures with his Ali G character. He probably found it easier to keep the hit rate going in a country with a bigger population and a less cynical attitude - not too mention the bigger paycheck he gets from the US production companies.
Juanita and S.A.; you seem to forget that globalization stems precisely from the US, hence, talking about the US has become talking about the state of western culture in general.
Cohen did indeed mock the bigotry of his own country, both on the 11 O'Clock Show, where Ali G made his official debut, and in a 6 episode series of "Da Ali G Show" (preceding the two he did in America), and in a (kinda terrible) scripted film called "Ali G in Da House."
Here's Borat at Cambridge, and Fox Hunting. (Warning: Unncessary laugh track)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9PZNznVaq4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a5uSweNPy8
Simon: "Juanita: No, which is what makes their comedies (or in the case of Von Trier, dramas, too), as critiques, imperfect."
Trier made Europe trilogy before he started he's USA trilogy. The Idiots is also set in Lars' own neighborhood in Denmark mocking the hypocrisy and untolerance in general; making comments about social norms and behaviour. It's anarchistic comedy and it actually reminds Cohen's stuff in it's performance-like quality (there's even a scene with Hell's Angels, although it's scripted).
I feel like a fool for addressing someone named Anonymous but such is the internet.
Hey Anonymous: I know of THE IDIOTS but never got around to checking it out. I will have to at some point.
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