Brüno Is Toxic to Gays

Brüno should have been good for the gays, shining a bright light on homophobia and inoculating the world against it. Instead, “Brüno is a gay minstrel, in the most literal sense of the word,” writes David Rakoff for Salon. Just as vaudevillians in blackface were universally shiftless, lazy, and “a-feared of spooks,” Brüno’s sexuality “comes bundled up with a lot of unattractive software.”

“He is an open hydrant of empty, venal ignorance, a fame-chasing, grandiose f---tard, all because he is a cockaholic (his term),” writes Rakoff. “The repeated pistoning of sucking dick has scrambled his brains.” Sacha Baron Cohen’s performance is actually the most homophobic thing in the movie. His victims aren’t hostile, just “mute with discomfort, politely waiting for the moment of childish provocation to pass.” (More Bruno stories.)