The most important thing to know about BORAT is that you will be appalled by what you see, and then you will be appalled by the way it makes you laugh. Uproariously. And with wild abandon. The only down side to seeing this film based on a character by Sacha Baron Cohen, and played by him to perfection, is the guilt you might experience over finding the humor in anti-Semitism, sexism, poor hygiene, general insensitivity, and the lowest common denominator of the great American public.
Borat is a clueless but game television reporter from Kazikhstan on a trip to New York in order to learn about the sense of humor. His country is full of fine natural resources, and some questionable ones such as pubic hair, and inbreeding (the two are not necessarily related), but the only sound of laughter is at the expense of the mentally challenged. With only a chunky producer (Ken Davitian) and a live chicken in tow for support, Borat attempts mightily to understand the concept of such things as timing and taste, but, alas, the chicken would have a better chance of grasping them. Between bouts of exasperating teachers and annoying feminists, he discovers “Baywatch”, and in particular, Pamela Anderson. Smitten beyond reason, he decides to abandon the search for humor and, without explaining the reason to either the chunky producer or the chicken, haul Kazakh tushie across country in search of Pamela. It is a measure of his naiveté about all things American that Borat thinks Ms Anderson is still a virgin.
The film bristles with jokes, visual and other, and it would be nothing less than criminal to give away any of them. Be it the backwardness of Kazakhstan, which has vilified Baron in that country, to the way Borat reacts with equal openness to ganstas in the hood or a lesson in southern charm and manners taught by a group whose cultivated veneer masks something less savory, the shock value of the film’s utter fearlessness in mocking anything and everything is something to be cherished as a high point in cinema. So is the sly way that Borat, as the thoroughly likable guy with a thoroughly heinous sensibility, taps into the darker undercurrent of the average American. Cohen achieves this by not exactly letting the people with whom he interacts, mostly just regular folks without any showbiz connections, know that he is an actor playing a reporter. That may not be exactly fair, and here I’m thinking of the ballroom full of business types on whom Cohen and co-star Davitian burst in naked and pugnacious, but it is to Cohen’s credit that while most of the film concerns his adventures in the vast expanse of Red States between the coasts, he takes equally lethal jabs at the sometimes equally smug blue state mentality. Borat the character may be a sweet-natured pig, but Baron has transcended the mere PC and revealed the dizzy heights of basic human silliness. BORAT is easily the funniest film of 2006 and is well in the running for the funniest film of the decade.
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