Directed by Larry Charles, and written by Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Mazer, and Jeff Schaffer, Brüno stars Cohen (above, with Gayby) as a gay Austrian fashionista who comes to the US to become "the most famous Austrian since Hitler" while at the same time trying to pass for a hetero dude like "Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and Kevin Spacey."
"Beneath the idiocy," writes Steve Rose in The Guardian, "Baron Cohen is also a politically astute agent who's devised an ingenious way to confront and expose serious social issues – and indulge his own exhibitionism.
"Brüno is funniest, though, when it's at its most politically incorrect, especially when it comes to homosexuality. There's an eye-popping montage of extreme gay sex practices (imaginary, one hopes), a surfeit of waving penises, dildos, fetish gear, anal bleaching, and an excruciating mime in which Brüno fellates the ghost of a deceased member of Milli Vanilli in front of a psychic."
But not everyone is finding Baron Cohen's antics funny. He has been reportedly slapped with a couple of lawsuits and there are some gay guys who have accused him of wearing "queerface," fearing that Brüno will help perpetuate gay stereotypes.
The (unintentionally) funny thing about those accusations, however, is that some of the accusers make Brüno look bütch.
Brüno opens in the US on July 10.
Photos: Frank Ockenfels / © Universal Pictures
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