Jagshemash! My name a Borat
There is little that can be said about the plot of this film. Sacha Baron Cohen takes his Kazakh journalist altar-ego, Borat Sagdiyev, across the US, following Cohen’s customary format. But despite the bland premise, the results are surprising. There can be little doubt that you will see few films as funny as Borat this year.
We begin with Borat introducing us to his village, playfully pointing out the village rapist and his sister (‘the fourth best prostitute in all of country’), before heading off to America with the hazy intention of learning America’s customs ‘for make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan’. Borat’s utter naivety, ignorant prejudices and offensive behaviour work only to reveal the same, and worse, about American society.
The reactions that he receives in New York when he tries to kiss strangers on the subway is guaranteed to bring laughter to anyone who has ever avoided eye contact on the tube, while his meeting with a group of leading feminists is predictably hilarious. The way Sacha Baron Cohen uses the character of Borat to reveal America’s own prejudices is masterful, while there is a charming touch to many of his more genuine encounters.
The self-control of the cameramen is something that must be admired, and the deliberate decision to make the movie look low-budget only adds to the comic effect. The fact that Cohen was almost arrested during filming by the FBI is testament to the power of his outlandish humour and razor-sharp satire on anti-Semitism, misogyny and racism.
It would be easy to call the film’s reality-TV style - the use of real life interviews - just as crude and boring as the reality-TV that now constantly clogs up our television screens. Yet Sacha Baron Cohen has used the same techniques to create something much, much deeper, not to mention funnier, than anything you might expect on Big Brother.
It is true that there is only really one funny premise behind this film: Borat, like a fish out of the water, and his encounters with the very worst that America has to offer. However, the short, almost sketch-like scenes, the brevity of the film and the fact that there is not one unfunny moment, makes it certain that viewers will not be disappointed.
It would be easy to say that you did not like this film or agree with its premise, but it would be almost impossible to say that you did not laugh at it.
2nd Nov 2006