Some Guy from Out of Town.

Rating: 8/10 (15 April 2007)

Sure this is funny. Hilarious. But underneath that overwhelming layer lie two others that are actually more interesting and in fact highly intelligent.
Cohen has mastered the skill of almost forcing his subjects into brutally honest reactions to his antics. Normally, people will only offer as much of their own prejudices as they deem will be acceptable, given whatever situation they happen to be in at the time. But what he has learned to do is to create context in which ANYTHING is indeed acceptable, thus freeing his subjects' opinions from their formerly oppressed state. That, along with putting them on the spot with extreme unpredictability enables him to draw out their opinions in a stream-of-consciousness manner.
The other (and most interesting) layer is that of uniquely ambiguous narrative. Is this a Kazahkstani documentary? A "making-of" the documentary? A feature film about the "making of?" A video travel journal?
Truth is, it's bits and pieces of all of these and more, complete with stock-footage, pseudo-stock footage, etc. I feel that this narrative mish-mash lends an air of reality which results in an extremely engaging experience. And that's the trick that makes it so side-splitting. Footage of a comedian accidentally destroying valuables in an antique shop can be enjoyed in multiple contexts:
---Fully-staged movie scene in which all players are acting their parts
---"Candid Camera" style prank in which a put-on is staged and some actors are used while others are unknowing
---Caught-on-tape incident in which an authentic accident is recorded
We get the humor of these levels simultaneously, and it overwhelms.
I'd like another example of a film in which almost every "character" was played by an "actor" who was actually oblivious to his own role. Pretty unique stuff here. It's enthralling to watch someone step outside their own movie and into someone else's, especially someone this foreign to them.
The template for this was surely Henson's "Muppet Movie," another landmark in narrative ambiguity (and another road movie). See the two back to back.