If you haven't noticed, a lot of people don't know what to make of Sacha Baron Cohen's upcoming film Brüno. A spokesperson for GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) is the latest person to express mixed feelings about the Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt:
"We have very mixed emotions about the movie. Those of us who saw the film agreed that you can't critique it as a single film because it's more like 90 minutes of individual sketches. Some are funny and hit their mark but others hit the [gay] community instead. As someone who sat at the back of a focus group audience outside of Los Angeles, I felt they were laughing at us at times."
Yet one critic thinks everyone needs to grow up and realize Brüno does not represent the entire gay community, but a set of people who "blanket themselves in one aspect of their personality" (their sexuality) just to force a reaction out of people. Another writer sees Cohen's performance of stereotypically outrè gayness this way: "It's not irony, you're just an asshole."
Do you think Bruno will expose or encourage homophobia? Can we laugh at one flamboyant, outrageous (and fictitious) gay man and the possible homophobia this elicits without laughing at the whole community? Could there be a redeeming value to this film?
If you need to see the trailer to help make up your mind, read more.
Karen Millen
Armand Basi
Luella
Check your writing, Tres:
1GLADD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation)
It's GLAAD, or you have your acronyms wrong.
It's always a good idea to have an editor check over this before you submit and post it.
i think some idiots and rednecks will take from it what they want, so in that sense it could encourage homophobia in the way borat encouraged racism and intolerance... but i think (or at least hope) that most people of average intelligence will get the joke.
i am SO EXCITED for this movie!!
2I don't know but I'm psyched for the movie.
3I didn't like Borat because I thought it was gross, not because I found it offensive. I was in on the joke he was making with his character, like he does with all of them, but that movie was just too lewd for me. I think Bruno will be more up on my alley and I can't wait to see it.
4I hope this movie turns out to be a positive thing for the GLBT community because it is coming out and it is going to be seen by a lot of people.
5I think it's good sometimes to be outrageous and freak people out, he's drawing a lot of attention to negative stereotypes but in a contained and humorous context. I don't think that raging homophobes are necessarily going to seek out the movie anyway.
6Probably the most important thing to come out of things like Bruno and Borat is that Baron Cohen is asking us to take a further look at exactly the kind of questions critics are posing. It matters most that these movies are a springboard for discussion.
7I hate that kind of humour. It's pointless, it's anoying. He is making gay people look ridiculous !
8Like his appearance at te MTV movie awards. It was just stupid.
I like what Cohen does with his films. He points out major flaws in Americans (usually), AND makes us laugh (and hopefully think about why we're laughing). In Borat, he introduced us to a lot of racism in American society. Take the National Anthem scene where people cheered for the death of Iraqi civilians, and the conversation he had with the man in the room with the bulls before that. He makes us laugh at racist jokes in that movie, which really makes you think about your OWN hidden stereotyping.
I think that Bruno will probably have the same effect in terms of cultural learning, by pointing out certain gay stereotypes that people hold without realizing it, and pointing out how homophobic our culture is, hopefully to promote reform and acceptance.
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