"Jagshemash! My name Borat. I like you. I like sex. Is nice!"
BORAT! CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN (We'll call it B!CLOAFMBGNOK for short--NOT!) is an incindiary comedy. The now-everywhere-known Sacha Baron Cohen's turn as the titular character is a piece of genius, a brilliant performance hiding behind a happily inept face.
Taken from his cult HBO show DA ALI G SHOW, Cohen's Borat is a breathtakingly funny character, an anti-Semetic, homophobic, woman rights-bashing reporter from Kazakhstan who comes to America to film a documentary to aid his government's fight for better social services. Along with his sidekick Azamat Bagatov, a grossly hairy and overweight piece of comedic brilliance himself, Borat goes on across America, taking pokes (sometimes stabs) at the ineptitude of nearly everyone he meets.
Believe me when I say this, almost everyone who cares about common societal issues will come out offended, if not completely pissed-off, after seeing BORAT. The shamelessy (but not really mean-spiritedly) stupid issues that Cohen brings up in his interviews with different groups of people across the country are screamingly funny, but maybe even more eye-opening. Jews, rednecks, women, men, Arabs, Muslims, Kazakhstanis, Americans, bears, gypsies, and anyone with siblings could have an argument in saying this is a hateful film. The way that these groups are for the most part represented by real people (or real animals, in the bears' case) though, should say something about our country. The truth is, the joke is on us, America.
It of course has to be said clearly, that while Borat is a made-up sketch by Cohen and director Larry Charles (of SEINFELD fame), the footage is real. After asking a Southern gun dealer what kind of gun would be the best to ‘defend against’ a jew, the dealer responds “probably a 9 millimeter or a .45.”
The movie that Cohen and Charles have made is a landmark in comedy, both in its content and storytelling, and in the buzz it has caused around the world. No comedy has ever been as controversial. More than a month before anyone had ever seen it, it had already created a buzz not only on the internet, but between governments. The Kazakhi government, fuming over how their people are viewed as idiotic imbreds, has demanded the film not be shown (it has, and has made over $67 million in just ten days). Since it was released, three civil suits have been filed against the creative team of the film, and don’t be surprised if more are to follow. The film has had multi-page spreads in Time Magazine and Newsweek, and was dubbed as the ‘funniest movie ever made’ on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. Hey, they could be right.
Taken from his cult HBO show DA ALI G SHOW, Cohen's Borat is a breathtakingly funny character, an anti-Semetic, homophobic, woman rights-bashing reporter from Kazakhstan who comes to America to film a documentary to aid his government's fight for better social services. Along with his sidekick Azamat Bagatov, a grossly hairy and overweight piece of comedic brilliance himself, Borat goes on across America, taking pokes (sometimes stabs) at the ineptitude of nearly everyone he meets.
Believe me when I say this, almost everyone who cares about common societal issues will come out offended, if not completely pissed-off, after seeing BORAT. The shamelessy (but not really mean-spiritedly) stupid issues that Cohen brings up in his interviews with different groups of people across the country are screamingly funny, but maybe even more eye-opening. Jews, rednecks, women, men, Arabs, Muslims, Kazakhstanis, Americans, bears, gypsies, and anyone with siblings could have an argument in saying this is a hateful film. The way that these groups are for the most part represented by real people (or real animals, in the bears' case) though, should say something about our country. The truth is, the joke is on us, America.
It of course has to be said clearly, that while Borat is a made-up sketch by Cohen and director Larry Charles (of SEINFELD fame), the footage is real. After asking a Southern gun dealer what kind of gun would be the best to ‘defend against’ a jew, the dealer responds “probably a 9 millimeter or a .45.”
The movie that Cohen and Charles have made is a landmark in comedy, both in its content and storytelling, and in the buzz it has caused around the world. No comedy has ever been as controversial. More than a month before anyone had ever seen it, it had already created a buzz not only on the internet, but between governments. The Kazakhi government, fuming over how their people are viewed as idiotic imbreds, has demanded the film not be shown (it has, and has made over $67 million in just ten days). Since it was released, three civil suits have been filed against the creative team of the film, and don’t be surprised if more are to follow. The film has had multi-page spreads in Time Magazine and Newsweek, and was dubbed as the ‘funniest movie ever made’ on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. Hey, they could be right.
A+ (High Five!)
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