Borat
dir. Larry Charles
wri. Sascha Baron Cohen
2006


Andy: "I've got lung cancer."
George: "That's not funny. That's too far."
Bob: "No, no, no, that's good. We can make that work."
Andy: "I'm not kidding."

- Man on the Moon

"If it bends, it's funny; if it breaks, it isn't."

- Crimes and Misdemeanors

A good comic can get the audience to laugh at him. A great comic can get the audience to laugh at themselves. But it's a rare kind of genius that can get an audience to do both at the same time.

Sacha Baron Cohen is a swift-boat comedian. He intentionally misrepresents the positions and experiences of others to challenge our self-perception.

Sometimes the joke is light, as when a dinner guest explains that he doesn't work anymore because he's "retired," and Borat expresses admiration that people with learning disabilities are allowed to work at all. "No, no, no, I said 'retired' not 'retarded.'"

Other times, Cohen takes real risks, demonstrating the one essential trait of the successful satirist: the willingness to put yourself further out on the plank than your subjects.

When Borat sings the alleged Kazakhstani national anthem for a rodeo crowd to the tune of the American national anthem, you truly fear for his chances of making out to the parking lot...especially when he claims that Kazakhstan's potassium exports are of higher quality than anyone else's (presumably including the U.S.)

NO ONE disrespects our potassium industry, you little foreign bastard!

My chief complaint about the film is the framing device. On his arrival in the US, Borat becomes entranced with Pamela Anderson and the film becomes a long road sketch about his quest to marry the beautiful CJ. What should have been a solid source of humor about America's beauty myth ended up narrowing the film's perspective.

That said, the Anderson device does lead to what is perhaps the greatest fight scene in film history, including Rocky vs. Hulk "Thunderlips" Hogan in Rocky III.

So, what makes Borat more than Latka Gravis with Tourette's? Well, Kauffman may have played Latka, and Kauffman may have wrestled women and antagonized rednecks, but not all at the same time, and that's what Baron Cohen brings to the table.

Two and a half stars. Jason sez, vary naaaaais.