Monday, November 13, 2006
Borat
A few weeks ago when reviewing Beerfest, I wished that, if Hollywood insists on cranking out gross-out comedies, at least they could try to make creative gross-out comedies. Well, my wish has been answered. Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is truly one of the grossest films you'll ever see but it is also a rare gem of inspired comedy.You know, comedians don't get enough respect. It's a hard business that is very creatively and spiritually draining. As the old saying goes: "Dying is easy. Comedy is hard." That's why it is so impressive to see a performer like Cohen so totally dedicated to his craft.
The premise, I expect, is well known. The chameleon-like Cohen, famous for his Ali G fake interview character, uses another character, Borat, a "journalist" allegedly from Kazakhstan, to stage another round of fake interviews. (By "fake interviews", I mean that the interview subjects are not aware that the interviewer is an actor playing a character and therefore react to his outrageous questions as though there is simply a culture gap.)
It takes real courage and discipline for Cohen to pull this off effectively. He is routinely roughed up by security guards. His interview subjects frequently threaten to call the cops on him. In one scene, he offends an entire audience at a rodeo. Now, that's gutsy showmanship.
If you google up "how much is real in Borat", you will find a vigorous debate about which scenes are staged (i.e. the people appearing in the scene are in on the joke) and which ones are "real" (people in the scene not in on the joke). It is part of Cohen's great skill that it is very hard to tell the difference.
Cohen uses his comedy skill to eviscerate a wide range of subjects, including anti-Semitism, homophobia, intolerance and nationalism. At all times, the film is a hilarious study of how gullible people are when you point a camera at them.
My favourite scenes involved Borat receiving lessons from a prim-and-proper Southern etiquette coach. I won't wreck the scene for you, but it revolves around Borat asking the etiquette teacher to explain the proper way in America for a guest to ask his hostess for permission to use the "shit hole".
Another whole level of comedy (and there are so many in this movie) involves the comparison between America and Kazakhstan. Cohen's fictional version of Kazakhstan appears cartoonish, featuring a characters like the village rapist and Borat's sister the prize-winning #4 prostitute in all of Kazakhstan. But the real-life America shown in the film - including frat boys, gun shop owners and evangelist revival meetings - seems equally cartoonish.
Before I close, I want to warn readers again that this is a gross movie. It is not for kids and not for the faint-hearted. There are scenes so repellent that I wish I could blank them out of my memory.
Yet, for all of that, this movie is a true comedy masterpiece whose influence will be felt for years to come. Cohen stands head and shoulders above the current crop of very mediocre comedians and, on the strength of this piece alone, deserves to be called a comedy genius.
posted by Mentok @ 10:46 AM,
