There were funny moments and there were offensive moments. Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat is astonishingly believable. My movie-going companion actually asked me, “Is he really from Kazakhstan?” (No, he’s an Oxford-educated Englishman--and he's Jewish.) The things that people said—thatBorat “got” them to say—were so outrageous, so racist, sexist and bigoted that I was more horrified than amused. It was not humor so much as a mirror held up to America reflecting the ugliness that we usually ignore.
Much as been written about the male nudity, which was an inspired bit of slapstick. Slapstick, when done well, can be as funny as anything out there. It also clarified to the audience that we were firmly entrenched in the theater of the absurd.
However, the moment I liked best was more silly than absurd. Let me set it up: in a quest to reach California, Borat and his companion buy a cheap car—an old ice cream truck. They also buy an animal for protection (yes, it's as odd as it sounds). That animal is a bear. In one scene, they can’t get the music for the ice cream truck to stop playing. A crowd of children starts running behind the truck thinking there is ice cream for sale. When the children get close, the bear sticks its head out the back window and ROARS. The children flee in terror. (I narrated this scene to my boyfriend and got so choked up with laughter, I could barely get the words out.)
It wasn't a great movie and certainly not a consistently funny one, but probably worth a look. It will not suffer from being viewed on DVD, either, given the purposeful low-quality look of the film.
WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILER
And the last scene, where a busty celebrity was actually stuffed in a bag—I assume against her will—was very, very hard not to laugh at. It was the culmination of all the ridiculousness of what had gone before and I could hardly believe it was happening—that it could happen. Wild. I was simultaneously horrified, as I could imagine how scary it would be to be the person under attack, and hysterical, as I actually sawBorat manage, however briefly, to execute his bizarre plan. I'm not sure, even now, what to make of my reaction.
What did you think?
Monday, November 20, 2006
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1 comment:
Neither I nor the person I went with thought the part with the busty celebrity being stuffed in a bag was funny. Being too ridiculous to believe, it was obvious to both of us that that particular scene was completely set up. Much of the movie had parts that were at least partially set up. Regardless, I still thought it was funny.
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