BRUNO (2009). To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen's smackdown of Dan Quayle during the 1988 Vice Presidential Debate: "Bruno, I screened Borat; I knew Borat; Borat was a review of mine. Bruno, you're no Borat." At the same time, there's still plenty of laughs to be found in Borat, which finds creator Sacha Baron Cohen employing the same guerilla tactics and faux-documentary style that made Borat such an unlikely box office winner back in 2006. This time, the uncompromising comedian adopts the personage of Bruno, a gay Austrian model determined to become an A-list Hollywood celebrity. That's easier said than done, as Bruno's flamboyance repels practically everyone he meets. It was rather disingenuous the manner in which Cohen suggested at the time of the film's theatrical release that Bruno is an attack on homophobia, since the end result strongly suggests that the filmmaker is having his cake (or cock, as Bruno would doubtless mispronounce the word) and eating it, too. The first half of the picture provides some hysterical material, but what's the target being punctured? Cohen is at his best when nailing specific people, but he's less successful when trying to shock viewers with naughty gay routines that encourage the audience to laugh at him rather than with him. Fortunately, the picture hits its stride in the second half, when Cohen exclusively sets his sights on various bigots, including monosyllabic Alabama hunters, extreme-sports-loving rednecks, and, most reprehensible of all, two vile Christian counselors who bill themselves as "gay converters." These scenes provide the film with the clarity of mission lacking in the earlier segments, as Cohen expertly alternates between subtly mocking his subjects and outright infuriating them.
DVD extras include select-scene audio commentary by Cohen and director Larry Charles; 35 minutes of deleted scenes; 19 minutes of extended scenes; and a 6-minute interview with Bruno's Hollywood agent, Lloyd Robinson.
Movie: **1/2
Extras: **1/2
MY SISTER'S KEEPER (2009). Making a weepie for mass audiences can't be that hard: Just place a person in a tragic situation and steer clear of the resultant flood. But making a weepie that doesn't feel manipulative, exploitive or sloppily sentimental is another matter altogether. With this adaptation of Jodi Picoult's novel, director-cowriter Nick Cassavetes largely succeeds in respecting both his subject matter and his viewers. As with his previous films (including The Notebook), he shows that he has trouble properly pacing a mainstream effort – a direct result, perhaps, of being the son of indie icon John Cassavetes, who always marched to his own idiosyncratic beat. But this submergence of Hollywood know-how also allows this latest work to speak plainly, relating the story of Anna Fitzgerald (Abigail Breslin), a young girl whose parents (Cameron Diaz and Jason Patric) created her specifically so they would have "spare parts" (bone marrow, kidney, etc.) to help prolong the life of their cancer-stricken daughter Kate (Sofia Vassilieva). Anna finally objects to her second-class status and employs a lawyer (Alec Baldwin) to sue her parents for "medical emancipation." Ample time is spent on the moral implications of the issue at hand (nobody, not even Diaz's myopic mom, is painted as a villain), and the picture never shies away from showing the physical deterioration of Kate (Vassilieva is excellent in the role). My Sister's Keeper isn't quite a keeper – beyond Cassavetes' erratic direction, the shortchanging of some key characters hinders the product – but it's a sturdy melodrama that earns those copious tears.
DVD extras include 16 minutes of deleted scenes and three theatrical trailers for other titles.
Movie: ***
Extras: *1/2
NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959). Everything comes together just right in this Alfred Hitchcock gem that finds the director again chasing one of his favorite themes: the innocent man falsely accused of a crime he didn't commit and forced to flee until he can prove his innocence. Here, the dupe is Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant), a New York ad executive who gets mistaken for a U.S. government spy named George Kaplan. The villains (including James Mason and Martin Landau) do their best to bump off Thornhill, and when that fails, they manage to get everybody in the country believing he's a murderer. Following a cross-country trail of clues in the hopes of finding the real Kaplan and clearing his name, Thornhill picks up his only ally in Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), a woman who initially appears to be attracted to him because – well, presumably because he looks like Cary Grant. Saul Bass' stylish opening credits and a terrific score by Bernard Herrmann (a year later, he would score Hitchcock's Psycho) immediately establish that Ernest Lehman's script will contain as much playful humor as nail-biting suspense, and Hitchcock directs it for maximum impact. The climactic set-piece on Mount Rushmore is a classic, yet even it takes a backseat to the legendary sequence in which Thornhill is attacked by a crop duster. This earned Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (the Mount Rushmore close-ups as well as the United Nations building interiors were recreated on Hollywood soundstages).
Extras in the two-disc 50th Anniversary Edition include audio commentary by Lehman; the 90-minute documentary Cary Grant: A Class Apart; the hour-long documentary The Master's Touch: Hitchcock's Signature Style; the 40-minute feature Destination Hitchcock: The Making of North By Northwest; the 25-minute piece North By Northwest: One for the Ages; a music-only audio track; and a stills gallery.
Movie: ****
Extras: ***1/2
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