A Private Peek at Brüno

My text-happy friend, who you know has 'txt critic', still wishes to remain anonymous. He's now managed to see Brüno early. Er liebte es. Here's his brief take:

predictably hilarious. even more shocking and envelope pushing than "Borat" and just as funny. but at the same time it's no longer new, so it feels somewhat "safer" as in you know what to expect. Still awesome, though. Gay stuff will keep it from doing Borat $.

And I have no idea how they got an R rating.

Interesting to hear that he thinks it's still in the dread NC-17 range. In a rare bit of multi-platforming (seriously, it's always texts with that one) he sent a follow up email to elaborate... which gets a bit more spoilery.

My crowd was largely filled with gay tastemakers and "VIPs" (Ivanka Trump and her loudly-talking douche date were sitting near me), so perhaps the cringeing and revulsion weren't as pronounced/discomfiting as they would have been in a multiplex, but I couldn't believe the sort of things Cohen got away with. Lots of penis and explicit (comic, obviously) gay sexuality. There's an extended sequence early on that is so wildly over-the-top (the capper for me involved a bottle of champagne), that I almost think Sacha Baron Cohen included it as a warning/button-pusher (i.e. if this part doesn't make people walk out of the theater, they should be fine for the rest of the movie).

Like Borat, I know there's been a bunch of talk about whether the satire of homophobia/homosexuality could be misconstrued as mocking of gays (thus validating homophobes in the audience), but it's difficult to imagine too many audience members proud to see themselves in Cohen’s targets. The one who you start to feel bad for is Ron Paul (he looks like a senile grandpa being taunted/seduced)… until he’s filmed angrily calling Bruno “a queer.”

Lots of funny/broad/silly set-pieces, with intermittent bits that resonate/provoke – a short encounter Brüno has with the ‘God Hates Fags’ folks was a highlight for me.

I personally can't wait to see this. Borat hurt me i.e. offended my delicate sensibility -- a remnant of that pesky Mormon upbringing -- but also made me laugh my ass off. Where are you at with Brüno: want to see, must to avoid, will decide later?

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