Brüno makes one thing clear about American cinema today:
You can show dicks without threatening an R rating.

Back in the day, showing big cock was as forbidden as giving kids
pot brownies, chased by vodka, for breakfast. These days, dicks are
flying like doves in a John Woo movie. If things keep going at this
rate, Comedic Dick Cinema is going to become its own genre.

Brüno, the latest film from British comedy outlaw Sacha
Baron Cohen, not only has a lot of dick in it; it has a talking dick.
Wait … let me clarify. It’s a shouting dick, and it’s a big laugh in
a movie that has plenty of small to medium ones. Laughs, that is.

The title character is a gay Austrian TV-fashion-show host who gets
fired for wearing a Velcro suit on assignment. (He winds up on a
high-profile walkway with many expensive garments attached to him.) He
comes to America, where he’s looking to start a stateside version of
his show.

This basically sets the stage for the same format that Cohen and
director Larry Charles used in 2006 for Borat. The results
aren’t as consistent, and some of the scenarios feel staged, but there
are plenty of laughs to be had. It also must be said that Cohen has
balls the size of Jupiter, considering some of the things he puts
himself through for humor’s sake.

Cohen’s main mission this time out is to expose homophobes. While
it’s no surprise to see redneck hunters looking insecure and
uncomfortable in the presence of Brüno, it’s quite a shock when
former presidential candidate Ron Paul venomously shouts, “Queer!” This
moment comes after Brüno gets a little out of hand during a
hotel-room interview. While Paul’s nervousness about the moment might
be justifiable, it’s a bit disconcerting to see how quickly the man
resorts to hateful slurs. Did Paul sign a talent release for this
movie? His appearance doesn’t flatter him much.

Cohen also has fun satirizing American celebrity, most notably
Madonna and Angelina Jolie’s “accessorizing” with children from foreign
lands. When Brüno goes on a talk show hosted by Richard Bey,
Brüno brings his adopted black child, O.J., along for the
discussion. This moment feels a little fake, but that doesn’t make it
any less funny. A photo of O.J. covered with bees, resting in the arms
of a heavily protected Brüno, is satire at its best. Who cares
about the welfare of the child, as long as that child makes the
celebrity look hot … right?

As was rumored, a sequence that involved La Toya Jackson has been
removed out of respect for the Jackson family in their time of
mourning. Apparently, she was a victim of the same stunt that gets (or
appears to get) Paula Abdul. During an interview with Brüno, Abdul
is invited to sit down on his Mexican furniture (actual Mexicans on all
fours) and eat sushi off of a Mexican’s body. She is not amused.

The most shocking sequence involves Brüno attending a swingers’
party. While black bars block some of the visuals, little is left to
the imagination as Brüno tries in vain to participate. One man,
who has no problem demonstrating sexual positions with Brüno away
from the party, gets irate when Brüno interrupts a blow job he’s
getting from his female swinger partner. The scene culminates in Cohen
being dominated by an angry blonde woman, in another sequence that
seems staged—but staged or not, it looks and sounds like Cohen
takes some honest whacks from a leather belt.

It would be criminal to say which celebrities show up for
Brüno’s charity song at the film’s end. Let’s just say that the
music world has a lot of good sports in it, and the song is very
catchy. OK, I’ll give away one of the celebrities: Slash. Slash plays
guitar during the song. Who gives a crap about Slash, really?

This is the third film based on one of Cohen’s alter egos from his
Da Ali G show. The movie Ali G Indahouse came and went in
2002, before Cohen teamed with Charles for Borat and perfected
the format. Actually, Charles and Cohen should bring back Ali G; he’s
now probably the least recognizable of his three characters, and he
might still be able to pull the wool over many eyes. Ali G actually got
an interview with James Baker once. That was some pretty amazing stuff.
Ali G with Obama would be nice.

Whatever Cohen does next, he’s bound to give the folks at the Motion
Picture Association of America some major headaches. This movie pushes
the boundaries of the R rating to the limit, and some will undoubtedly
think it goes too far. (Folks were walking out of the screening I
attended.) Don’t bring the kids, unless your kids like talking dicks,
bleached buttholes and swinger parties—in which case, it’s Sunday
matinee time!

This article appears in Jul 16-22, 2009.