Wednesday, November 29, 2006

So if Kofi Annan ever steps down: "Borat"

No, I'm not typing out the entire title. Sue me.

I had seen a couple of Borat bits in random viewings of "Da Ali G Show," and they usually made me chuckle, at least more than the Ali G and Bruno characters. Then I saw the trailer for "Borat," and I about peed my pants. My wife? Not so much. So it was a solo viewing for your trusty blogger, and that was a good thing.

As you likely know, our story is a mockumentary about a journalist from Kazakhstan (Sacha Baron Cohen) who travels to America -- first to do a report on our great nation, then to pursue the new love of his life, Pamela Anderson. That leads to a cross-country trek from New York to California, and as you might guess, hijinks ensue.

Actually, "hijinks" is much too tame a word, with Borat wreaking havoc and offending more people than some may have thought possible. It's all under the guise of an ignorant foreigner, of course, which makes for great hilarity ... sometimes. Other times, it's a tad uncomfortable, but you have to admire Cohen's cojones for doing this stuff.

I'm wary of citing specific examples since I undoubtedly will overlook some. Such is the peril when recapping this machine-gun series of interviews and interludes across the land of the free. But I'll cite a few of my favorites:
  • Borat meeting with "real chocolate face" Alan Keyes and learning that the man who stuck a rubber fist up his anus (Borat's, not Keyes', although you never know ... ) the night before just might have been a homosexual.
  • Borat returning to the dinner table at a fine dining society in Mississippi with a bag of his feces, apparently not knowing what he was supposed to do with it.
  • Borat rallying a rodeo crowd with a bloodthirsty rant about killing everyone in Iraq.
Now, some people have made a big deal about what Borat shows Americans about ourselves. The rodeo scene is one example. Another is when a gun dealer doesn't hesitate to recommend something when Borat asks what gun is best for hunting Jews. And sure, I suppose those scenes are clever and telling. Gee, some people sure don't get this modern world we live in!

But for me, the less political, more outrageous stuff was funnier. True, Borat and his chubby producer wrestling naked and then running through a hotel was probably too much. But Borat trying to buy a car, trying to learn how to drive, trying to learn how to tell jokes ... that was when Cohen's clueless schtick was most convincing.

Of course, the big thing with all of this is how the other people aren't in on the joke. For the most part, I bought it. Uptight Republican Bob Barr did not look happy to learn that the cheese he ate was made with milk from Borat's wife's breast. Other scenes are harder to accept as pure ambushes -- the drunk frat boys reportedly were plied with booze before picking up Borat in their RV, and there's no way Pamela Anderson does her thing without knowing what's going on.

Still, it all runs together well, and ends at about the right time -- after less than 90 minutes. Rather than wax on about its brilliant satire, I lean toward this becoming one of those see-it-again-and-again movies to appreciate certain scenes and, yes, nuances that run throughout the movie, i.e. Borat's humor lesson coming up again late in his adventure, or the ultimate fate of the aforementioned rubber fist. I know I want to see it again, although I may have to skip the nude man wrestling. My eyes are still burning a bit.

1 Comments:

At 11:18 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Borat really is hilarious in some parts and difficult to watch in others. And I definitely agree that some of the funniest scenes are the most overlooked (joke telling, buying a car, etc.).

The movie dropped a peg after I read that Pamela Anderson was in on it and that the "prostitute" was actually a friend of Borat's (who's an actor). And that the movie had real-life consequences for some people (like the producer of the news he appears on got fired).

 

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