Anal bleaching, when you learn about it for the first time, is one of those things that make you think life is passing you by, though not enough to make you want to investigate in more depth. It turns out that people pay for it and others get paid for doing it – probably not nearly enough. Anyone wanting to find out more about the subject can learn as much as you reasonably need to know in one of the more decorous scenes in Brüno, Sacha Baron Cohen’s telling of the commonplace story of a gay fashion reporter seeking to make himself famous in the United States.
If your first test of a comedy film is “does it make a few hundred people laugh out loud on several occasions in a cinema?” then Brüno works. Better still they were laughing at all the right things. Maybe this is because the targets in Baron Cohen’s sights are the idiots who work in the higher levels of the fashion industry, fame seekers and militant homophobes. He manages to get one model to share that she feels she has the hardest job in the world on account of having to remember to put the left leg in front of the right let and then turn around and points out to a pastor whose mission is to make gays straight that he has “terrific blow job lips”. His words, not mine. The pastor we should note says that his lips are there only to praise Jesus.
Baron Cohen’s commitment to method acting makes Marlon Brando look like an extra on Emmerdale. The bleaching scene when he’s talking to his agent at the other end of the phone seemed real enough and judging by the expression on the face of the medium as Brüno orally pleasures the spirit of the dead one from Milli Vanilli the actor was really in the moment. He even tries to bring peace to the Middle East though his makeover of the Hasidic outfit into hotpants and three quarter length shirt is not likely to catch on in Jerusalem.
Mrs Mac was of the view that Brüno lacked some of the depth and subtlety of Borat. Maybe so but it avoided the temptation of stretching the concept out too long which is the ruination of many a good film. Now even though it’s absent from much of the publicity I think you can make a defensible case that Brüno is quite a subversive piece of work taking potshots at notions of race, celebrity culture and mostly homophobia. Having adopted an African baby Brüno interviews parents who want to launch their own kids’ modelling careers in a photoshoot which will involve stinging insects, operating heavy machinery and handling phosphorous. They all agree. The result was worth it and we get to see the black child on a crucifix with the white kids dressed as Roman soldiers. On so many levels it was funny, subversive and inspired.
Brüno rampages through some of the most homophobic intuitions in the United State, churches, that weird phony wrestling and Alabama hunters. It’s the audience reactions which makes the film. As the gay hating wrestling fans break into tears of rage and start throwing everything they can grab into the ring Brüno starts getting on with his fight partner. The cinema audience was completely on the side of the two gay men and the homophobes were left looking like dinosaurs. Isn’t that progress?
Liam redux 
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