Reports are rolling out of SXSW (thanks Twitter!) that the sneak peak of “Brüno” that Universal screened absolutely killed. The Playlist himself was there and tweeted us, “Brüno footage: holy fucking shit. hahahahaha hahahahahaaha hahahahaha hahaha haha.”
Trust us, The Playlist rarely laughs.
Those super insiders report that Sacha Baron Cohen introd the sneak with a pre-taped video message from his “editing bay.” Variety tells us a little about the footage, including a montage where he casts real kids to be in a photo shoot with an African baby he’s fake adopted and “(o)ne (parent) after another agrees without flinching to let him do terrible, dangerous things to their children–from extreme dieting and liposuction to letting them pose as Jesus on the cross–just to land the acting gig.”
The MTV Movies Blog says (written by our very own aforementioned Playlist head) Bruno’ makes ‘Borat’ look like child’s play and clarifies the other two acts of footage that were shown – where “Brüno appears on a Jerry Springer-like talk show to flaunt his new baby to a mostly African-American audience” and then tells the audience “(the baby) was traded in Africa for an iPod, but a special, pimped-out version — ‘not just any old iPod,’ he assures them.”
In the third act Baron-Cohen morphs into Straight Dave, super hetero host of a wrestling show. R.Perez via MTV says, “This is the gay-loathing party to end all gay-loathing parties. Of course, Straight Dave’s uüber-machismo does a 180 right into homoerotic overtones, but this goes over every audience member’s head as SD rips female stagehands’ clothing to reveal skimpy bikinis.”
Sounds fairly amazing, no? Like ‘Borat’ on steroids. We can’t wait! “Brüno” is bound for theaters on July 10 and apparently Baron-Cohen ended this screener footage for the SXSW journos by telling them to buy a fucking ticket.
Update: Ed. I’ve just returned from SXSW. The “Brüno” was seriously uncontrollably funny, and with a dangerous subversive and transgressive bent that will smash the limits of UNPC-ness and will surely outrage people. We died laughing and everyone in the theater did as well. “Borat” the film doesn’t have a lot of staying power, but it was riotously hilarious on the first viewing and “Brüno” looks like it will do the same only with an even more aggressive bent of social satire.
One would assume that Cohen would try and one-up his wicked, near Machiavellian culture pranksterism, but one never assume he could never mount such a militaristic successful tet-offensive on his previous work.
What I wrote over at MTV basically reveals the plot.
“Cohen’s Brüno character is fired from his job for blowing an Italian fashion-show segment. Distraught, he goes to Hollywood in the hopes of becoming the “most famous Austrian star since Adolf Hitler.” As already rumored, in an attempt to fit in with Tinseltown celebrities, Brüno and his boyfriend/assistant David adopt a baby from Africa, which Brüno carries around to appear chic and trendy (a move that seems intended to dis the Madonnas of the world). At some point in the film, Brüno and David split up and he loses custody of the child. Depressed, he tries to reinvent himself as the most aggressively heterosexual man in America to regain custody.”
Whether “Brüno” can stand the test of time like “Borat” seemingly cannot (maybe it’ll take a years for the overexposed/played-out taste to wear out of our mouths) almost seems like an unnecessary point. The film looks poised to be a paralytically funny assault on cultural morality and an experience that will be incredible in theaters.