Review: Borat
The movie Borat is like the film equivalent of meeting your in-laws and bringing up both religion and politics before the soup course is over. It’s a divisive movie: either it’s the funniest, most honest film ever made about America, or it’s offensive to, well, everyone, and shouldn’t be shown in public, ever. There is passion surrounding Borat. There’s no middle ground. You’re either trying to Q-tip him out of the corners of your brain, or you’ve taken to hanging around hotels, looking for a naked person to chase (naked).
Well, I’m here to provide that middle ground.
Here’s the deal: Is Borat an interesting concept? Ordinary Americans unknowingly reacting to a nutty stranger? Yes. Can Sacha Baron Cohen act? Yes. Is Borat a good movie? Technically, no. There’s a “plot” and a series of scenes that are too short or too long, and some kind of resolution tacked on to the end. Is it funny? Yes. Will it make your eyes and ears bleed? Again, yes.
It’s a tough film to call: there’s plenty to snicker over, but there’s also the overwhelming sense of relief that the matinee down the street only cost me $3 and eighty minutes of my life. I laughed: Borat keeps a chicken in his suitcase and he’s obsessed with Baywatch. It’s funny. But so much of the humor is so startling, so cringe-worthy, that it’s sometimes hard to enjoy. More than anything, Borat is over the top–it’s dazzling in its crudeness, its riotousness, and the seamlessness of Cohen’s performance. There’s something to be said for a movie that enthralls just by being so fearless. On the other hand, sometimes it’s hard to tell whether the movie is good, or whether it just refuses to let us look away. In all likelihood, it’s a bit of both.
The upshot: See it at your own risk; you might love it.
January 27th, 2007 at 9:36 am
you nailed it.
Borat is brave. It is also simple. The meat of the movie was actually in the spontaneous reactions (except the frat boy scenes) of real people (except the frat boy scenes) when a culturally enlightening monkey wrench is thrown in their seemingly orderly American lives.
before and after that was thin sandwhich on the cake.