Philly.com – By Steven Rea – Inquirer Movie Columnist and Critic
“How do you protect yourself from being attacked by homosexuals?” Sacha Baron Cohen asks in Bruno, his latest guerrilla-style, envelope-nuking spoof.
But while Cohen’s title character, with his blond highlights and Austrian lisp, is querying a guileless karate instructor – and getting a seemingly earnest demonstration of defensive moves in response – the question can be asked of Bruno itself:
How does the film – and its perpetrators, writer-star Cohen and director Larry Charles – fend off critics who decry Cohen’s latest in-your-face farce as homophobic?