Biting social commentary and outrageously boundary-pushing comedy

Rating: 9/10 (7 July 2009)

There are only two schools of thought on "Borat" and its star Sacha Baren Cohen: You will either find him a comedic genius or an over-the-top, disgusting and truth-stretching con artist. A history major from Cambridge would suggest the former: an uncanny ability identify social stereotypes, generalizations and fears and exploit them for comedic purposes.
Cohen, who made the Borat character mildly famous on his HBO program "Da Ali G Show" reaches his broadest audience by daring to make an entire movie, effectively posing as his character in real life situations and catching it on film along with the reactions of all those he has involved (or has duped, in other terms).
The character Borat is a reporter for Kazakhstan's national television network who travels to America (the best country in the world, right?) to learn things that he can take back Kazakhstan. He is an embodiment of ignorance and prejudice (Borat is terrified of evil Jews and deplores womens' rights) posing as a foreigner who doesn't know any better. The results are genius and sometimes even sad in the pathetic way depending how you see it, but definitely over the boundaries of what we're used to. It's sort of an intentionally misleading documentary. Borat might be fake, but the reactions to him are real.
Tying the plot together is Borat's discovery of "Baywatch" and adult film star Pamela Anderson and his decision to travel across the country to take her virginity. That is the through line, the rest of the film are scenes addressing all sorts of social and religious groups/classifications, or even just testing Americans' basic aversion to closeness with strangers in public or excessive nudity. "Borat" and Baren Cohen basically take all the things that we censor in America and put them right up front to see how we handle them.
Truthfully, "Borat" is not a forgiving comedy, nor is it very mature on the surface. The male nudity is gratuitous, references to female genitalia are frequent, excrement is popular and anyone who doesn't immediately connect with the satirical purposes would find it racially and ethnically offensive in about every way possible. In other words, you have to be highly cognizant of Cohen's purpose or simply love all that stuff at face value to recognize "Borat" as one of the best and most original comedies in a long time.
For the intelligent viewer, it's completely impossible to ignore all the genius put into this film. The film seems to be hardest on Jews, yet Cohen is Jewish and actually speaks in Hebrew frequently when he's ad-libbing in Kazakh. The Jewish couple he meets are the two cutest old people you'll ever see and he claims they've shifted shapes and throws money at them. In these scenes the humor comes from Borat's reaction, not the people he's 'duped' and the intention is to point out our blind prejudices. When Borat comes across a Gay Pride Parade in D.C. he says they're the nicest and friendliest people he's met in America -- because there's no fear of personal space invasion. On the other side, he gets some serious responses of bigotry from Americans just by prompting them in subtle ways that bring up homosexuality or the War on Terror. You can call Cohen un-American, but the British actor is only provoking and not stooping as to make the people in the film look bad by editing the film a certain way.
Cohen and his incredible characterization talents far and away make "Borat" cutting edge and audacious comedy. Straight up ballsy. There might be debates elsewhere, but there's no question about how daring his comedy is. It also happens to be one of the most memorable and quotable comedies in recent years -- the scenes in this film will not leave you because this is such stand-out work.