MovieGuy109

Larry Charles, the countercultural writer whose work includes episodes of the sitcom Seinfeld and the anarchistic hybrid documentaries Borat and Religulous comes out with yet another piece of iconoclasm, this one more crude and offensive than the rest. Bruno is like Borat, the innovative mockumentary Charles made with Cohen earlier in 2006, where people are teased into believing Cohen's outrageous actions are true and that Bruno is a real character. As horrible as it may be to more light-hearted audiences, I find this obnoxiously satirical style to be plain funny and in many ways, intelligent. Here, people are made to believe Cohen as a flamboyantly gay Austrian reporter seeking fame by just acting like his tasteless and immoral self. This works into satirical bullets at both Bruno and homo-phobics. In this film, we obviously see satirical pokes at Bruno, whose caricature is as relevant in contemporary Hollywood as any, but the real punches Cohen and Charles are aiming at are the conservative communities who reject Bruno upon sight. Charles and Cohen, being the usually nihilistic pair they are, creates a world of discomfort for the audience as genuinely awkward situations play out in crude but hilarious manners. This film will shock and offend viewers, but it is all in the name of satire.

The Manchurian Candidate is a splendid film in total, a provocatively relevant thriller. The film is all in all, one of the first to take on the risky subject of mind control and this one remains one of the best in that genre. Used in surreal effect, the film builds for us an air of bizarre mystery, we are shocked not by what is seen on-screen, but the proposition of the film altogether. That is what makes this film more effective, it is not gruesome, but its notions to mind control and government coverts are as frightening today as they were fifty years ago. In perspective, the film acts as a commentary on American and korean politics while providing a shockingly relevant thriller.

George C. Scott's performance as General George Patton is by far, one of the greatest in cinema history and fortunately, he gets a script that matches his prowess in acting. The script (co-written by Francis Coppola) is well-written, focusing on a small portion of the general's life in pure detail, underlining both the positives and the negatives of the eccentric man. But though everything in this film is just nearly perfect, it is Scott who truly wins over his audience. Malden also puts on a notable effort as General Omar Bradley and the battle scenes are perfectly choreographed by an expert crew, but then again, it is the on-screen personalities who win this one over.