The second time around, Borat isn’t quite as hilariously shocking, but its knotty complexities only grow deeper. When you’re not busy rolling in the aisles, you’ll actually notice that some of Sacha Baron Cohen’s victims hold on to their dignity rather well. Certain jokes are such self-reflexive boomerangs that you have to hear them more than once to figure out exactly who the target is (like the one that goes “You telling me the man who try to put a rubber fist in my anus was a homosexual?“) Others have been quoted in outrage so much that the actual punchline went forgotten: the “Running of the Jews” bit doesn’t actually pay off until the last scene of the movie, where Borat says, “It’s cruel. We Christians now!” while a crucified townsperson gets poked with a pitchfork. Questions about what’s real persist–I’m not sure who said it first, but the line about all movies being documentaries applies.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Larry Charles, 2006. ****
- YouTube pulled it, but Yahoo Video still has Sacha Baron Cohen’s Golden Globe acceptance speech.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
October 25th, 2006
There’s no doubt in my mind that Sacha Baron Cohen’s outrageous comedy is going to be huge–he had a Wednesday afternoon crowd of New York’s finest critics howling for 90 minutes straight. The humor’s as broad and silly as anything Will Ferrell has done, but it feels much more dangerous and true. As Borat travels west across the country with his bear and his ice cream van, he doesn’t just reveal his own stupidity but also that of everybody he encounters. Frat boys, dinner parties in Southern mansions, Trump Tower, a Virginia rodeo, an antique shop, Pamela Anderson–nothing’s safe from Cohen’s sophisticated satire, disguised as backwater idiocy. It’s not often that we walk out of a comedy hurting with laughter and wanting to go back to see it again as soon as possible. There’s a lot more I want to tell you, but I’d just be spoiling the jokes. Very nice. Opens November 3rd.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Larry Charles, 2006. ****
[tags]borat, comedy, 4 stars, kazakhstan, america, sacha baron cohen, satire, pamela anderson, bears, hand party[/tags]
