Sacha Baron Cohen Is Hysterically Funny and Yet Moving

Rating: 10/10 (6 March 2007)

This rude and raucous faux documentary is hysterically funny, scarily penetrating in its look at American culture, and oddly moving.
First off Sacha Baron Cohen is absolutely fabulous. He's got to be the bravest actor who ever lived. He goes basically "under cover" as Borat and braves some of the ugliest Americans I've ever seen. All the time he is in character, he probes and cajoles and insults a wide spectrum of Americans who I am afraid mostly come off (in turn) as a batch of crude, smug morons. The view we get of ourselves as a culture is quite, quite chilling.
This is a film that could be deconstructed and analyzed for ages and always come up with something new. The nicest characters Borat meets on his journey across America are the black prostitute and the black street boys. The others are a pack of bigots, humorless drones, and people terrified of him. Borat uncovers an underbelly of mainstream America that is every bit as ugly and filthy and ignorant as the third-world village he so proudly shows us at the beginning of the film. And this is exactly the type of humor that many American viewers didn't get. The humor is always what is seems to be.
For all the anti-Jewish ranting in the film, the fact is that Cohen is a devout Jew. The British comic turns everything upside down but the condescending dolts he meets along his journey only see him as he presents himself. They can't get past the accent, the rumpled suit, the bad hair, the stereotype, etc.
The film is not politically correct and is filled with hilarious bits, sight gags, slapstick, word play, etc. and Baron Cohen is very, very funny. He constantly catches the audience off guard. Just the sight of Borat and his sidekick (Ken Davitian) zooming across America in a 1950s ice cream truck is funny. That they also have a bear as a passenger adds a level of absurdity that goes beyond inspiration in the same way the Marx Brothers did in the 1930s.
Sacha Baron Cohen won a Golden Globe and certainly deserved an Oscar nomination for his incredible portrayal. But I'm afraid this inspired comedy, even though a box-office hit, went over the heads of the establishment.
The ending of the film is surprisingly sweet after the ride Borat has taken us on. Not to be missed!d