After Brüno, Hollywood depictions of gays may never be the same. That's a good thing.

By Dennis Lim

Love it or hate it, Brüno confirms Sacha Baron Cohen's gift for sniffing out cultural landmines—and his corresponding willingness to walk right over them. The British comic anarchist's latest piece of daredevil performance art is another Tocquevillian trip through the American psyche, this time in the company of a flaming Austrian fashionpolizei and fame whore. Just as the Anti-Defamation League expressed concern over the anti-anti-Semitic humor of Borat, gay rights groups like the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and the Human Rights Campaign have questioned the wisdom and taste of Brüno's full-frontal assault on homophobia: Does the movie send up stereotypes or perpetuate them? Who's the joke on? Who's the joke meant for? What if they don't get it?



Lost amid the dutiful hand-wringing about the movie's capacity to offend is the rather remarkable fact that it takes on, with unprecedented purpose and directness, some of the most vexing and enduring bugbears surrounding on-screen homosexuality. Herewith, a few old themes and taboos that Brüno has its way with and that, if we're lucky, will never be the same again.

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