Arts Borat’s Secret Weapon
posted by on November 2 at 12:11 PM
Like so many others, I cannot wait to spend two hours gaping in awe and horror at Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, which opens this Friday in Seattle and which Annie Wagner gives an intelligent rave here.
With Borat on the brain, I recalled one of the details that made my appreciation of creator Sacha Baron Cohen skyrocket in the first place: Borat’s suit. I wish I could recall exactly where I read this, but it was in a relatively in-depth profiley piece on Cohen/Borat when Da Ali G Show was airing in the U.S., and it changed my perception of Borat forever.
Basically, Borat has one suit—that schlumpy beige number we all know so well. At the time of the writing of the mystery profile—several years after the U.K. birth of Borat—the suit had never been washed. Along with his bumbling bigotry, Borat extended to his interviewees an ever-more-merciless stench, and rewatching old Borat segments with this new knowledge blew my mind all over again.
For better or worse, for many Americans, any person exuding a terrible odor may as well be wearing a sign reading “I AM POOR AND/OR FOREIGN, OR WORSE,” and for Cohen to capitalize on the unique sanctimony only a horrible stench can elicit is further proof of his genius.
Now it’s 2006, and the Borat movie’s here, and I guess I assumed that in making the jump to Hollywood, Borat may have given his suit a washing, or at least ordered his 9-year-old bride to bang it against some rocks in a Kazahk river. I was wrong. The day before yesterday in Manhattan, my fella Jake had the good luck to share an escalator with Sacha Baron Cohen in full Borat regalia. “He smelled awful,” reports Jake.
All hail the (still surprisingly dreamy) Sacha Baron Cohen.
It's too bad the movie's not good. One of my seatmates at the preview for the new film with Will Ferrell (which is FANTASTIC!) was going on about how it should have been at most 15 minutes long - it's not that it's not funny, it's that it would be a good SERIES of short comedy bits, but doesn't work as a film.
Hey Will: Have you seen the Borat movie, or are you just taking the word of an unnamed stranger in the seat next to you at a preview as fact?
The preview goers circuit is a pretty tight knit group of unemployed weirdos. They speak as one.
Hmmm ... handlebar mustache vs. soul-patch-within-a-square ...
According to Rotten Tomatoes, 47 of 50 reviewers enjoyed Borat. Meanwhile a friend of well-known mental patient "Will in Seattle" did not. Clearly, the reviewers must be wrong.
...Well, the 47 reviewers, I mean. Obviously, those other three are right.
I saw the movie in San Francisco. I laughed loud and hard at most of it, but in a few places, there seemed to be actors. His skits are funniest when he catches REAL PEOPLE unaware. The parts that seemed scripted or had actors made me sad....
I saw the movie last month. . and I laughed so hard I nearly vomited. It was great. Much better than that shit Ali G movie.
in september, i attended a screening of borat in los angeles. i was surprised by the early level of excitement about this movie -- folks started lining up 12 hours before the film started. and it was hot as balls outside.
the hilarity lies in the unscripted moments. the story line is, as to be expected, weak. but, overall, borat is seriously some of the most cleverly offensive stuff i have ever seen on the big screen.
plus, you cannot deny a comedian that gets an ENTIRE COUNTRY to launch a PR campaign to save face. brilliant marketing.
Unemployed? You obviously know little.
Let us review some of the obviously scripted parts:
Kazakhstan preview: Like a dunk in glacial runoff. OFFENSIVE. Hilarious.
Super-nice Jewish couple feed Borat sandwiches: Hilarious, and canny a priori refutation of Anti-Defamation press releases.
Fat hirsute naked assistant wrestling Borat: Hilarious.
Pamela Anderson being chased through parking lot? (I'm not positive this was scripted--anybody?): Hilarious.
The movie is, perhaps, about 15 minutes too long. But no more than that. And I can't really think of anything I would take out, except the humorless feminists, and that obviously says more about me than it does about Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
Will in Seattle: "Unemployed? You obviously know little."
See? Will in Seattle's seatmate unemployed... NOT. Or maybe that's, Will in Seattle unemployed... NOT.
Well, I'm not exactly sure who's not currently unemployed (or what they're currently not unemployed at), but anyway, I can't think of any better evidence of just how lousy this "Borat" movie is.
Regarding Borat, either to get him or you don't. Enlightened (sorry, but I can't help but think is a misnomer) obviously does not.
Heh, good comment Madashell.
I loved the movie -- completely hilarious.
Anyone know if the Pamela scene at the end was scripted?
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