'Atomic Blonde' blows an opportunity to revitalize spy genre

Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde

As I waited for Atomic Blonde to begin a trailer for the upcoming Kingsman sequel came on. It looks like a fun, slightly bigger budget retread of the original -- which is fine -- but it also reminded me of how much I miss James Bond and how his absence from the big screen (and Jason Bourne's stumble upon his return) has left a vacuum in the spy genre waiting to be filled.

Atomic Blonde -- starring Charlize Theron as a super stylish, butt-kicking secret agent -- could have been a refreshing new spin on the spy movie -- in the same way that Wonder Woman opened up a whole new world for the superhero film, but instead it's about two thirds music video and then one third John Wick knock-off.

The movie is directed by one-half of the duo behind the original John Wick -- David Leitch -- but he appears to not have learned the lessons of what made that Keanu Reeves comeback vehicle so great. The Wick films are both incredible action movies and also incredibly self-aware about their absurdity.

They are both fun and funny, two things Atomic Blonde decidedly is not. They also play off of Reeves' laconic personality, giving him little to say and making him more effective because of it. In this case Theron, who proved she can be a formidable presence in an action movie with Mad Max: Fury Road, is being used largely to lean on her sex appeal and her performance can be deduced to one long strut with a dicey British accent attached to it.

She doesn't really have charisma or a character, she looks incredible and throws herself into both the action and the sexuality of this movie (which some could argue is exploitative), but there is no "there" there.

The movie is set in Berlin right before the wall came down in 1989 for seemingly no reason other than to bathe the soundtrack in blaring '80s pop classics which get increasingly tedious as this overlong film grinds from one contrived twist to another.

It does contain one bravura sequence (most of the best action set pieces are unfortunately spoiled by the trailer) that is worth standing up an applauding for. It takes place in what is meant to appear to be one long continuous shot and features Theron in a series of knock down, drag out fights with a seemingly endless number of henchman, leaving her and the bad guys a bloody pulp.

This whole bit actually delivers on the prolonged promise of the movie. Before this scene, the movie is marred by aping far too many spy movie tropes handled better by far superior films. Even the movie's structure -- using an interrogation scene as a framing device -- feels like well-trodden territory.

Coming on the heels of action pictures that at least try to do something different -- like Baby Driver and Good Time -- Atomic Blonde feels like an unwelcome throwback to a time when stupidity wasn't a detriment to an action film's appeal and success.

Atomic Blonde is not necessarily stupid, but it is smug. It presumes audiences will be satisfied just to watch Theron puff on cigarettes and deliver her stilted dialogue in the same husky whisper she brought to the last Fast & Furious movie. And my hunch tells me that's not enough to take this movie to the next level, where it becomes something akin to an event that you can't wait to watch when it's streaming.

In another, weaker year, Atomic Blonde would be perfectly serviceable action fare, but this has been a great year for genre pictures and your money is better spent elsewhere.

The fast-paced 'Good Time' does Scorsese-lite just right

I've never seen a Twilight film, in fact I've never seen anything with Robert Pattinson in it, and if I saw Good Time totally blind without any awareness of the baggage he was bringing into it I'd think he was just a really exciting up-and-coming actor.

Saddled with an unflattering goatee, sporting a convincing Queens accent and conveying an overall scuzzy vibe -- Pattinson is electric, even transformative in Good Time, a hyper-kinetic Scorsese-esque crime film with an authentic New York flavor.

The film, directed by (and starring one of) the Safdie brothers, two rising indie filmmakers, is not necessarily ground-breaking in terms of its content. It's about small-time hoods whose poorly perpetrated heist goes wrong, and yet it has an unpredictability and a genuine sense of humor about it that kept me enthralled.


It's aided tremendously by its propulsive soundtrack and razor sharp editing, as well as a colorful array of supporting performances from either largely unknown or untrained actors, including an unforgettable Buddy Durress as a screw-up who unintentionally gets swept up in Pattison's schemes and Taliah Webster as an unlikely romantic interest.

Jennifer Jason Leigh and Barkhad Abdi (of Captain Phillips fame) also show up in brief, but striking supporting turns. And Josh Safdie (who also co-wrote and co-directed) is compelling in what could have been an exploitative role as Pattison's developmentally disabled brother and partner in crime.

But this is very much a star vehicle for Pattison, albeit a low budget, prestige one. While the film flirts with Pulp Fiction verisimilitude, Pattison provides a satisfying look at a uniquely over-confident mess of a young man. His motivations -- besides preserving some semblance of his autonomy -- are never fully clear but every once and while, when the action slows down, his eccentricities are revealing.

He appears to be dating (and financially manipulating) a much older woman (Leigh) and he also seems to have a delusional sense of him self have a greater "purpose" which makes him better than most other hoods.

A more character-driven movie might have explored this big fish in a small pond mentality a little bit more deeply but Good Time is more motivated by sticking to genre conventions. And as far as crime movies go it's a fun, occasionally brutal one.

It certainly will be a shock to the system of Pattison's diehard fans, but it appears that much of the work he's done since his Twilight heyday is a concerted effort to create that very effect.

'Dunkirk' proves Christopher Nolan can master emotional material

There are usually two types of war films. The first kind focuses on how war dehumanizes everyone involved and is ultimately a tragic waste of human life.

The second pays homage to heroism in the face of insurmountable odds.

Dunkirk, the fantastic new movie from director Christopher Nolan manages to deftly do both with a narrative that is stark and simple, yet told with epic scale.

The knock on Nolan up until now has largely been that while he is a master craftsman his films can lack heart. I think the criticism has been overstated, but it's clear that with his last film -- the sci-fi melodrama Interstellar -- he was attempting to counter those criticisms by making a story steeped in more emotion.

However, where that film fell a little short for me, Dunkirk soars -- literally. From the very opening shot Nolan tightens the screws of tension and creates a remarkable atmosphere of dread mixed with excitement. I know Nolan is a champion of staging as much in camera as possible, with practical effects, but I can't for the life of me figure out how he made this picture,

The stakes are enormous. Thousands of British soldiers (who are desperately needed for fights to come) are stranded on a beach with virtually no air support, making them sitting ducks for German bombers swooping overhead. The only hope they have are courageous civilians who ventured out in their own vessels to save them.

It's an incredible story, one I must admit I was ignorant of before I saw this film, but it only works because Nolan fills almost every frame with something compelling to watch, while infusing the whole movie with a really well-earned compassion.

This is a movie that sneaks up on you emotionally. It is in many ways a tribute to the indomitable, can-do spirit of the British, but it never is overly sentimental. The film is mostly stocked with unknowns (although Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance and Kenneth Branagh are all terrific in small, supporting roles) and it doesn't spend a lot of time with deep character development.

This is a film that's power is derived from its theme and it's almost unbearable tension. I had the unique pleasure of watching the movie in IMAX where its breathtaking aerial sequences make you feel like you're piloting a fighter plane yourself, and when soldiers face rising water in a sinking ship, you can't help but hold your breath.

But this is not simply a summer rollercoaster ride. Nolan has made his most personal film here. There were traces of his fascination with sacrifice and the will to "do what's right" in his Batman films and to a lesser extent in Insomnia, and it's front and center here.

Nolan has revealed himself at long last to be a pure humanist, someone with an old fashioned sense of honor and duty that doesn't feel dated at all but, especially now, vital.

Dunkirk is easily one of my favorite films I've seen this year. It's a special movie. One that will stick with you and leave you shaken and stirred.

'Never Seen it' - Episode 18 - 'King Kong' (1976) is a real time capsule

What does the 1976 version of the King Kong story have to offer? Well, a very sexy Jessica Lange (to your left) in her first major movie role -- that much Liz and I can agree on.

For me, this film was sandwiched between a lot of monkey movie viewing, from the new Kong movie, Skull Island and the latest (and last) installment of the new Planet of the Apes franchise.

This big budget 70s blockbuster has long been on my radar but I just never sat down and watched it from start to finish. It's definitely a spectacle, but that doesn't mean there isn't some very problematic stuff in it.

Check out the latest episode of my wife Elizabeth Rosado and my podcast -- 'Never Seen It' -- below, in which we weigh in on whether all the Kong movies are inherently racist, and a few other pressing concerns.



PREVIOUS 'NEVER SEEN IT' EPISODES:

Episode 1: Some King of Wonderful
Episode 2: XXX
Episode 3: Varsity Blues
Episode 4: Xanadu
Episode 5: An Affair to Remember
Episode 6: Blue Steel
Episode 7: Spy Kids
Episode 8: The Frisco Kid
Episode 9: Rising Sun
Episode 10: The Conjuring 2
Episode 11: Zootopia
Episode 12: Fear
Episode 13: The Cell
Episode 14: Nocturnal Animals
Episode 15: Kindergarten Cop
Episode 16: Clash of the Titans
Episode 17: Silence

Stay tuned for more!

Five reasons why 'Homecoming' is the best Spider-Man movie yet

There is every reason to be cynical about the new Spider-Man movie. Did this character need to be rebooted for the third time in 15 years? Probably not. But, not unlike Marvel's challenges with The Hulk, it's taken three iterations to get this character right.

I have actually long been an admirer of Andrew Garfield's first turn as the webslinger, but his two films were hampered by a desire to retread ground already established by the three (overrated in my opinion) Tobey Maguire films that preceded them, as well as genuine audience fatigue with the character's story.

This film is the first one that feels truly fresh and invigorating. It's thankfully not another origin story, in fact this one sort of picks up where the spirit of Captain America: Civil War left off. It's a big, fun, fast-paced and inventive summer movie, and not unlike Wonder Woman, it'll leave a smile on your face.

I really didn't expect to like it as much as I did -- but I really do believe that this is hands down the best Spider-Man movie that's ever been made, and it now feels like the character is on the right path again, hopefully for good. Here are my five biggest takeways:

1) Spider-Man is actually a kid - Ok so Tom Holland is actually 21, but he is much more believably a teenager than Garfield or Maguire ever were, so he's able to sell the character's peppy innocence without it seeming forced or grating. He has a Michael J. Fox quality to him -- he's very genuine and sympathetically frazzled on screen, but never less than heroic. This may be the smartest choice the producers made, going with an unknown who doesn't bring any baggage or over-the-top angst to the role.

Now we're talking

2) Finally, we have a great Marvel villain - Michael Keaton is terrific and nearly steals the movie as The Vulture, possibly the best bad guy in any of these films since Loki. He gives a very layered, interesting performance as a villain whose motivation has depth and clarity of purpose. He elevates Holland's game, and the movie's best scenes are when they are not even in costume. This makes the whole movie a lot more resonant and engrossing.

3) It looks and feels like New York - Not only does the movie make great use of New York City locales, it really drives home that this is a character who lives in Queens, the city's most diverse borough. The cast is colorful in a totally believable and accurate way, and the fact that the film's multiracial universe is never called out but is simply a fact of life, feels almost revolutionary. The previous Spider-Man films seemed to take place in this pristine almost touristy version of the city; this felt more honest and real.

4) More audience service, rather than fan service - Thankfully, this movie keeps the tie-ins to the rest of the Marvel universe to a minimum. Sure, Robert Downey Jr.'s character Tony Stark has a very prominent role, but it's a nice, thoughtful addition (he's Spidey's mentor) and instead of trying to please fanboys and comic book aficionados, the movie is more interested in simply telling a really good story and keeping things moving. This is one of the few Marvel movies that felt surprising to me, even the final act didn't have the same inevitability about it, which I appreciated.

5) Special effects are up to snuff - The weakness of all these films to me, besides the tendency to drift into sappy romance, has always been the Spider-Man sequences. Watching a CGI, rubbery looking person swinging through the air never was very compelling to me. But this film does the best job of making it look and feel as if there is really a human being in the suit. And the special effects sequences are largely sterling from start to finish. There is very cool, retro imagery in the closing credits, which kept me feeling good vibes. Highly recommended.

'War for the Planet of the Apes' is an epic finale to special series

Against the odds, the most recent reboot of the Planet of the Apes saga has turned out to be one of the more compelling series of the last several years, introducing an iconic hero to audiences -- Andy Serkis' Caesar -- and redefining special effects with its groundbreaking use of motion capture.

This trilogy, which appears to have come to an end with this latest installment -- War for the Planet of the Apes -- has always had its share of skeptics, in part because the originals (depending on your point of view) haven't aged well or in the minds of some, can't be topped. And the last time a reboot was attempted with Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, it fell flat.

These films, which started with Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011 and got even better with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes in 2014 flipped the whole series on its head by making the apes really appear to be apes (thanks to incredible effects) but also made them unabashedly the heroes of the series instead of the antagonists.

In this third film, the biggest weakness of the earlier films -- the human element -- is improved upon with Woody Harrelson playing a particularly nasty villain, which is an homage in many ways to Marlon Brando's Kurtz in Apocalypse Now.

Meanwhile, an older and grayer Caesar is a regal, striking hero. His face can hold a screen just like any other major leading man and in a film with minimal dialogue, audiences are drawn into the world of this ape leader and his flock, feeling more emotion and warmth for these creatures, which each have distinct personalities even if they can't all speak like he can.

What's remarkable about these movies is that they persuade a mainstream summer movie going audience to root for the humans to be killed in a relatively dark and brooding film while cheering a horde of gun-toting animated apes.

Nothing about this should work but it does. Part of the credit must go to Matt Reeves, who has helmed the last two films in this series, and has made a deliberate effort to tell the story almost entirely from the apes' perspective. He has shown in these two films, as well as Cloverfield and Let Her In, that he really knows how to stage a gorgeous-looking and visually effective action sequence.

And the other MVP of the movie is Serkis, who is getting a lot of well-deserved praise, and even some longshot Oscar buzz for his work here. What he does here is art, pure and simple. And once you've seen this film it feels like any big effects movie that doesn't employ this model with be inherently lacking.

The film does get a little overlong in its last act (during which it lays on the Christ-like imagery a little thick) and can even be knocked for being a tad sappy at times, but in my estimation Reeves and company have earned the right to aim for the fences. These films have been engrossing, compelling and majestic.

If this is indeed the end, it's a fitting one.

'Baby Driver' brightens moods, restores faith in popcorn flicks

As much as I enjoyed watching Baby Driver, the new heist film meets romance from director Edgar Wright, I've been even more delighted by its commercial success. Here is a great piece of pop entertainment, which doesn't condescend to its audience or underestimate it. It takes some risks -- it may be even a tad too cute for some -- and it manages to revitalize a genre -- the crime movie -- which has been overshadowed in recent years by a plethora of superhero films.

This just goes to show you that audiences will still turn out for a relatively old-fashioned action film if you deliver genuine thrills, likable performances and dialogue that is lively and engaging.

I would not call myself a Wright fanatic, for instance, I was not as taken with his Scott Pilgrim v. The World as many fanboys were, but this one feels like the culmination of all his previous work. It's probably his most accessible, and its already showing real staying power at the box office, which is rare during the summer months, when each new weekend crowns a new behemoth blockbuster.

I saw this movie during a particularly trying week. I wanted to like it, but was also prepared to be disappointed. But really from the opening frames, I was taken by the movie's audacity.

It dares to be self consciously clever and it owns the absurdity of its soundtrack-heavy syncopation and even makes it a compelling plot point. The film also makes great use out of its eclectic cast. Ansel Elgort makes a charming leading man, but he is aided tremendously by dryly funny Kevin Spacey, an unpredictably scuzzy Jon Hamm and Jamie Foxx, who once again proves (as he did in Django Unchained) that he can be terrific when he gets a great role.

And while Wright's whole aesthetic can be reduced to homage -- there is plenty here for fans of other car-centric thrillers like The Driver to appreciate -- the film still manages to feel oddly personal, maybe because there is a very earnest love story at the center of it, or perhaps because it doesn't try to be too brooding. It's not concerned with being cool, it's more interested in being fun.

Besides its killer soundtrack, the movie has some seriously great, stylized action set pieces, and every time you think the movie is headed in one particular direction, it throws you a little bit of a curveball, which I really appreciated.

It's obviously a crazy time in the world right now, so much so that ultimately unimportant escapist fare like this can seem inconsequential, but its an interesting time at the movies -- some really original, exciting work has snuck into what looked like a very boring summer season.

It lifted my spirits, even if just for a couple hours, and I bet it'll put a smile on your face too.

'The Big Sick' should make Kumail Nanjiani a legit movie star

Movie romances -- at least for me -- must always strain for an element of surprise. And films that involve a major character having an illness can also often be painfully predictable and manipulative.

The wonderful new comedy The Big Sick manages to tackle both without ever feeling too sentimental or treacly. Basically, it's really as good as all the hype you've heard.

And in the midst of winning over audiences with some big belly laughs and harsh truths about how hard it can be to be honest to the ones we love, The Big Sick also manages to make a movie star out of Kumail Nanjiani.

This shouldn't be a big deal but the fact is that American films almost never cast Southeast Asian men in leading roles and certainly not in romantic stories. Nanjiani is really the center of this film and instead of making him a Pakistani person divorced from his background, the movie chooses to show the complexity of his character's relationship with his culture.

The film is remarkably directed by The State alum Michael Showalter, who until now is probably best known for being one of the brains behind the incredibly surreal Wet Hot American Summer movies. I'm a big fan but I never knew he had a movie this warm-hearted and emotional in him.

Yes, The Big Sick is a about a relationship that gets tested by both health and other factors, but it's not a relentlessly bleak tearjerker or a trivial night out at the movies.

It feels very grounded and lowkey in the best way. The best lines and humor emerge from the very instinctual awkward moments in conversations.

And while the movie definitely has narrative momentum, it never feels rushed. Plot elements unfold and characters aren't left off the hook to easy when they make mistakes.

Nanjiani is brilliant throughout. He's funny both doing deadpan and manic comedy, but he handles the more intense scenes just as proficiently. And he's aided tremendously by a great supporting cast including Holly Hunter and a remarkable Ray Romano, who really almost steals the movie.

It's also a testament to the film that so many of the character parts are played so naturalistically that I actually wasn't sure if some of the performers were actors or the real-life people on which they are based. I knew going in that this film was based on Nanjiani's real-life relationship with his wife, although I'm not sure how closely.

Seeing as I know they are married now one would think that could deprive the movie of tension or suspense, but it doesn't. You just get swept up in the characters' story. And you like these people, there are no villains in this movie really, and so you grow to love these characters and you want to see them win.

The movie itself is definitely a winner. It's certainly the most effective and touching comedies I've seen in quite a while and with Nanjiani taking his act to the next level this could mean a very interesting career as a new breed of leading man.

John C. Reilly should be cast in a lot more movies

This weekend, somewhat randomly, I was treated to two terrific John C. Reilly performances in two polar opposite movies, and both experiences reminded me that he is one of the most underrated and underused character actors in Hollywood.

The first film was an old favorite of mine, P.T. Anderson's first major film -- the slow boiling crime drama Hard Eight -- from a little over twenty years ago and the second, his most recent movie, Kong: Skull Island.

Reilly has been a strong character actor for years -- he's popped up in movies like Casualties of War and The River Wild when he was very young, but didn't breakthrough until he teamed up with Anderson, first with Hard Eight, and even more notably in Boogie Nights and Magnolia.

Now, he is widely recognized, but partially because of his earnest, honest delivery and unconventional looks, he has found more success in comedies, namely as Will Ferrell's partner in crime in movies like Step Brothers and Talladega Nights and as the iconic Dr. Steve Brule from Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!

He's been Oscar-nominated only once, for a small but poignant turn in the ensemble musical Chicago, and even that recognition may have had as much to do with what a juggernaut that movie was back in 2002 (even Queen Latifah was Oscar nominated for it).

But it's roles like Hard Eight that demonstrate what is so unique and captivating about him. He's not afraid to play dumb characters; not stupid in a silly way, but woefully naive in a painfully realistic way. In Hard Eight he plays John, a hard on his luck loser who gets taken in by savvy aging gangster played to perfection by Philip Baker Hall.

John C. Reilly in Chicago

He manages to be both hilariously funny but also pitiful in a heartbreaking way throughout the movie. And in almost everything he's in, he elevates the material, whether its the first Guardians of the Galaxy, where he played a small but pivotal role and yes, Kong: Skull Island.

I watched this film on a plane, and I can say its one of the rare films that's probably ideally viewed in that setting. It suffers from all the usual flaws of a modern-day blockbuster behemoth: It's got no reason to exist, it's overlong and it is stuffed with too many characters and subplots (Tom Hiddleston, so fun as Loki, is a bore in the wannabe Chris Pratt role, and Brie Larson is even more wasted as a plucky photographer with no qualms about taking exploitative photos of the problematically ethnic locals who worship Kong).

At least the 2005 version of King Kong from Peter Jackson tried to imbue the ape with some inner life via the marvelous motion capture performance of Andy Serkis, but in this film the big guy is simply ready to rumble and while the movie has some undeniably great B-movie moments it secret weapon is a truly wonderful eccentric performance from Reilly that steals the film from its ostensible leads and makes it worth watching all the way through.

Reilly plays a World War II fighter pilot who crash landed on Kong's Island and has had to survive for the next twenty years alongside the native population. Not only did he miss out on American culture of the 50s, 60s and early 70s, but he's also started to lose a bit of his mind as well.

Sporting a gargantuan bushy beard, a leathery complexion and spouting dialogue which genuinely sounds improvised, he gives a corporate product like Kong: Skull Island what it desperately needs -- unpredictability.

And in a summer movie season stocked with the now routine litany of sequels, reboots and franchises, we could at least use some more unconventional casting to keep things from being too stale. It's what made Robert Downey Jr. such an inspired choice to play Iron Man, so why not give John C. Reilly a chance to headline a surefire hit?

'Night of the Hunter' takes risks modern thrillers don't

The iconic 1955 noir thriller The Night of the Hunter is certainly dated in some key ways (its score for instance, occasionally lapses into pure cheese), but in other more significant ways, its macabre plot is light years more adventurous than many modern genre movies.

For instance, it not only casts then-heartthrob actor Robert Mitchum (one of my favorites from Hollywood's golden age) as an unhinged psychopath, but it has him moonlighting as a rabble-rousing preacher (complete with striking 'love' and 'hate' tattoos on his hands). In a key early scene we see that Mitchum's character is both drawn to and infuriated by sexual permissiveness (he quakes with anger while viewing a striptease that he paid to see).

By making the antagonist's madness motivated by a kind of religious zealotry gone haywire, The Night of the Hunter, whether intentionally or not (and I suspect it was intended this way) casts suspicions on the wisdom of reactionary evangelicalism and makes a political statement about persuasive demagogues too.

Curiously, modern movies almost never touch religion with a ten-foot pole. The only exceptions are souped up Biblical epics (which really are more about elaborate action scenes than scripture) or the more stealthy Purpose Driven Life-esque screeds couched as middle-of-the-road drama in pablum like Miracles from Heaven.

Every once in a while a movie like Silence deals seriously with faith, but those films can almost feel more like a term paper than entertainment. They are movies you admire, but don't necessarily enjoy.

The Night of the Hunter never runs the risk of feeling like a religious parable, because its corker of a plot keeps you too amused. The heroes of the movie are a couple of young country kids whose father has been executed for a robbery gone wrong.

Mitchum knows that the loot from that crime is still at large, and he ominously and systematically moves in on the dead man's family, marrying his widow and insidiously making veiled threats (that eventually become not so veiled) towards the kids.

That a movie from 1955 has the audacity to 'go there' on issues of child abuse and matricide is still shocking, but the fact that it is also underscored by a kind of faith-based extremism is downright riveting.

There's a particularly disturbing scene where Mitchum forces his new wife (played by a vulnerable Shelley Winters) to look at herself in the mirror while he dresses her down for having the audacity to lust after him. Of course, the audience knows that its Mitchum's sexual perversion that apparently motivates his desire to kill, but in a way his psychological manipulation is far more malevolent than any physical threat he poses.

As he begins to mold Winters into a kind of zombiefied Tammy Faye Baker on steroids, he also starts to go to work on the kids, using his natural charisma to play the two young children against each other in a twisted effort to learn the location of the missing money.

Modern audiences unaccustomed to the slightly more matter-of-fact rhythms of classic Hollywood movies might not find The Night of the Hunter particularly scary now. Certainly audiences back in 1955 didn't quite know what to make of it (especially with its oddly beautiful portrayal of a drowned corpse). But to me it remains a fascinating curiosity. Its director, celebrated character actor Charles Laughton, never made another film, and Mitchum largely struck to heroic films after this (although he made a mean Max Cady in the original Cape Fear).

Normally, I don't think films that are already great ought to be remade, but there is so much juicy material here that could be really vivid in an updated version that doesn't have to be neutered in any way by censorship. I'd love to see Ryan Gosling play against type in the Mitchum role.

You listening Hollywood?

The underrated 'Bruno' is an unlikely all-American movie

Although it takes a little while to get going, the outrageous 2009 mockumentary, Bruno, is a perfect companion piece to Sacha Baron Cohen's breakout hit Borat, although it was much more harshly received, and I suspect that's because the movie takes much more dead aim at American prejudice and ignorance in a way that the previous film, featuring a hapless foreigner, never did.

Although it relies on crude, gross-out gags a little too much, when Bruno is firing on all cylinders it features some awesomely compelling footage.

For instance, when the Bruno character (who is a vain, oblivious, flamboyant, wanna-be gay fashion icon) makes a foray into trying to "become straight" he conducts a series of gasp-worthy interviews with barely-closeted gay conversion aficionados, swingers, hunters and self-defense trainers.

It's barely a movie -- it's really a series of wild, sometimes potentially dangerous vignettes -- but taken as a whole its edifying about the vacuousness and hatred buried not so deep within the American psyche.

In fact, Bruno could be viewed as a harbinger of the Trump era, since the character makes his own reality and more often than not the people he encounters (with the notable exception of a very angry Ron Paul) humor him and appease him to absurd degrees.

There is one extended, particularly cringe-worthy scene, where Bruno interviews stage parents of child actors that are not even quite toddlers. Seeing that his marks are sickeningly pliable, Bruno/Baron Cohen begins to pile on increasingly bizarre and vile requests.

The parents, without hesitation, agree that their children will be fine appearing in a crucifixion scene and dressed as Nazis, it's hard to not to think of the lengths so many people in this country will go to satisfy their own need for gratification or perhaps financial security.

A surreal interview with Paula Abdul

It's sad and sickening to be sure, but it also feels wholly American.

And fittingly, the whole movie ends in a cage match in Arkansas, where a staged make-out between Bruno and his on-again-off-again lover leads to a near riot. The scene could easily be transported to a Trump rally, when protesters were assaulted and the eventual 'president' egged them on.

As with all of Sacha Baron Cohen's humor, there's an argument to be made that he is trafficking in all the very ignorant stereotypes he's ridiculing people for believing in, and what's more there's a smug superiority in mocking people who have no idea they're being had.

And yet, any crime against humanity (or comedy) he may be committing, pales in comparison to the obnoxiousness of twin charity promoters he interviews who mangle the pronunciation of Darfur and at one point float the idea of making wristbands out of endangered animals to raise awareness...about endangered animals.

God bless him and God help America; our ignorance has been our bliss and will potentially be our downfall.