Borat
2006: Larry Charles
Rated R – 84 minutes
Vault Rating: 6
The actual title, of course, is “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” We shall dispense with formalities. What the film really is equates to “Jackass with an Accent.”
Now, I hate to equate this movie, which is an outgrowth and refining of “Da Ali G Show,” which I also didn’t care for, with the dreadful “Jackass” movies … But the underpinnings are the same.
Writer and star Sacha Baron Cohen takes on a character, “Ali G,” in said television series and basically punks on some pretty well known people in the guise of a politically incorrect, culturally out of date talk show host. Basically, he has people on without their knowledge. Then (2003) Cohen took advantage of his anonymity to do some pretty ballsy things. And sometimes his Ali G interviews were more direct and pointed than most conventional journalists’ could ever be.
In Borat, Cohen poses as a Kazakh documentary film producer who is touring America on a kind of cultural fact-finding mission. He starts out in New York City, where the supposed Kazakh tradition of kissing the men you meet on each cheek meets with results you might expect from the old “Candid Camera” show. New Yorkers are sometimes comically averse to the invasion of their personal space.
He travels to Washington, D.C., where he has the first of many run-ins with suspicious police. Bravely, Cohen holds to his story and gets away with amazing things. He even manages a luncheon with an unwitting U.S. representative that goes sour over, of all things, home-made Kazakh cheese.
It is the kind of fun you have at someone else’s expense and it is more humorous when it is less expensive, if you get me. But sometimes, and this is the thing that “Borat” gets and “Jackass” misses, the humor is more about rethinking prevailing social mores. In cultural commentary, “Borat” succeeds pretty well at times.
On the other hand, there is the dangerous cliff the comedy rides along, threatening to plunge madly over the edge. There are times in this movie that Cohen willfully places himself into either very dicey or even downright dangerous positions.
In the now famous rodeo scene, Borat comes on to sing the national anthem. He begins to cheers by saying he supports the “terrorist war.” Using his cultural ignorance as a foil, he continues to laud the war as the audience becomes increasingly more uncomfortable. Then, in his version of the national anthem, things disintegrate. Cohen has placed Borat in a potentially deadly situation and come close to inciting mob violence.
He’s got big ones.
Since Cohen has appeared at the Oscars and on the cover of Rolling Stone, his cover is blown, and his act must move on. Vault is of the opinion that he’s the beneficiary of a lot of hype.
Vault found the film both amusing and wicked. It is in turns “ha-ha” funny and then “Oh my God” funny. Sometimes the situations are really not funny, but frightening instead.
Cohen is doing performance art. His points will have you thinking, but not always nice thoughts. The comedy doesn’t always work. Sometimes it blows up in his face. The nude wrestling scene is slapstick. The obsessive pursuit of Pamela Anderson is only right in Borat’s world.
We give credit to Cohen for sticking to his guns and never letting on to anyone. The comedy, though, like Andy Kaufman’s was, is sometimes unsettling. If you like entertainment at someone else’s expense, you’re going to love Borat. If not, you’ll think him an ass.
Vault is torn. The movie is definitely worth a look. The character of Borat is a funny man with a very quotable accent. But all the rave reviews on the film are, in this corner anyway, misplaced.