Relentless Skewering of American Cultural Mores Yields a Hilariously Astute Comedy

Rating: 9/10 (29 November 2006)

This is definitely a comedy that lives completely on the edge. Its sheer audacity and fearlessness against public rebuke are admirable to some, repulsive to others. Except for a few groaners, this is one of the most hilariously observant films about global perceptions of the U.S. and an incisive, unguarded account of the prevailing social attitudes and cultural taboos in this country. In a compelling Andy Kaufman-like turn, Sacha Baron Cohen plays Borat Sagdiyev, a television commentator from Kazakhstan, here portrayed as the most backward of third-world countries. He has been assigned by his government to travel to the U.S. to make a documentary about American cultural mores.
After introducing us to his country, Borat arrives in Manhattan accompanied by his hefty, worrisome producer Azamat. But there is a change of plan when Borat sets his sights on Pamela Anderson and sets out on a road trip across the country to meet her in L.A. There is no let-up of ridiculous sight gags and maddeningly funny asides during its quickly paced 82-minute running time. Unlike the Pamploma bulls, there is the "Running of the Jew" in which the Kazakh villagers attack a couple of giant, papier-mâché puppets, Mr. and Mrs. Jew, who in turn lays a giant egg which the local children beat furiously with sticks. Other scenes have Borat erroneously presuming that a hotel elevator is his room and being a semi-attentive student to amazingly tolerant instructors as he gets lessons on comedy, driving and etiquette.
Throughout the movie, Cohen keeps upping the ante and yielding even more comic dividends - a question to a gun store clerk about the best weapon to kill Jews answered without hesitation; a B&B owned by a kindly Jewish couple which turns into a scene from "The Blair Witch Project"; a conservative Southern dinner party that gets ugly when Borat invites an overweight black prostitute as his guest; an aging cowboy who lets his bigotry spew freely at the rodeo; a trio of frat boys from South Carolina who enthusiastically share their supremely sexist attitudes; and most infamously, an extended naked wrestling match between Borat and the grotesque Azamat that ends up in a convention of mortgage brokers. All these scenes expose a raw nerve which feels concurrently offensive, truthful and hilariously comic.
Credit needs to go to director Larry Charles, who guides this venture with the same type of deadpan élan he showed with HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and the screenplay by Cohen, Anthony Hines, Peter Baynham, and Dan Mazer, which lends a loose structure to what seems to be a series of staged scenes with all the non-actors. But above anything else, it's Cohen's major accomplishment that he can make Borat an anti-Semitic, sexist homophobe and still have him come across as an amiable, cheek-kissing fellow full of innocently executed malapropisms. I'm sure the easily offended will continue to express their disgust, but for the more adventurous, brace yourself for a comedy that will make you roar with laughter while giving you that unsettling feeling of recognition. It's quite a trick which Cohen and company pull off superbly.