At The Movies With Peter Travers: “Bruno,” Plus “I Love You, Beth Cooper”
Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen is back to wreak havoc in America this weekend as Rolling Stone movie critic Peter Travers is At the Movies with Brüno. This time around, Cohen stars as a gay Austrian fashionista looking to find fame in the United States. By now, you’ve seen the commercials, and we don’t want to ruin any of the gags, so we’ll keep the plot summary at a minimum. “This guy to me is doing the type of comedy that this country needs more than ever,” Travers says of the must-see film. “This is shocking, but shocking in a good way.”
(Read Peter Travers’ full Brüno review here.)
Like Borat, Brüno confronts many of America’s most controversial subjects, except this time in addition to attacking the bigots and racists, Cohen is taking potshots at the entire culture of celebrity worship. An unsuspecting Paula Abdul is just one of the unsuspecting pawns in Cohen’s comedy. While some will say Cohen is just copycatting the Borat formula, Travers compares Cohen’s work to that of the great satirist Jonathan Swift. Cohen is “holding up a mirror to us,” Travers says, imploring everyone who might be reading this to go and see Brüno immediately.
For every great comedy, there’s always 10 bad ones, and this week’s doozy is called I Love You, Beth Cooper. The film stars Hayden Panettiere as a popular cheerleader who falls for her school’s nerdy valedictorian. In case you’re unfamiliar with Panettiere, Travers points out that the actress also plays the cheerleader on Heroes. She also played a cheerleader in Bring It On: All Or Nothing. It goes without saying that Panettiere is very comfortable playing roles that require cheerleading, just like it goes without saying that I Love You, Beth Cooper is Scum Bucket-bound.
Read this week’s reviews:
Brüno
I Love You, Beth Cooper