It’ll be a tight race! In Sunday’s Times, Brooks Barnes wondered if audiences would realize that the central joke of Brüno is on homophobia, rather than just laughing at the stereotypes caricatured by its title character, a gay Austrian fashionista. And today, the Wrap even has a clip of gay entertainers agreeing with an interviewer comparing Sacha Baron Cohen to blackface comedians. But they’re not the only ones upset! This morning, the BBC reports that many of the very same Austrians who laughed at Borat in 2007 are increasingly nervous that Brüno, whose stated ambition is to become the “most famous Austrian star since Hitler,†might turn their country into the next Kazakhstan.
According to the oft-reliable Sun, which ran the first review of the movie this morning (via Hollywood Elsewhere), Austrians may actually be right to worry: “The Nazi leader gets a mention every five minutes,†claims Gordon Smart. But even they might not get the worst of it — will Brüno also be offensive to pygmies? Sounds like it!:
Brüno has only been in love twice. Once for just seven minutes with Eighties pop act MILLI VANILLI and the second time with his pygmy boyfriend who dumps him when he loses his TV show. And here lies a warning — the pygmy sex scene is one of the most horrific incidents ever committed to celluloid. I’m talking fire extinguishers, champagne bottles, and mechanically adapted fitness equipment. Teenage boys should under no circumstances watch this with their parents.
If this movie fails to cause at least one riot, someone at Universal should probably lose his job.
A Plea for Tolerance in Tight Shorts. Or Not. [NYT]
Nervy Austria ready to laugh at Bruno [BBC]
Sex, sushi and a kugelsack of laughs [Sun UK]