I always have a strange & uneasy feeling when I'm going to a movie that's hailed by (almost) everyone as "hilarious". What if I didn't find that funny? What if I didn't have a good time?
Laughter is so instinctive. You can't force it. Worse than that: when people see others laughing at something they don't find funny themselves, they tend to get really annoyed.
This movie is a clear cut: either you get it, or you don't. If you don't, you'll save your time leaving in the 1st 5min. If you do, you'll piss yourself for almost 90 minutes.
Well, luckily, I fall in the latter category! :D
That is a hell of a messed up film!
The guy has no shame and will stop at no offense.
Interestingly, the people he meets are quite up to par especially when it comes to people met in a rodeo or crazy evangelists.
It made me wonder how much of it was "real"? Obviously the character isn't. His chap Azamat isn't either. But all the people he meets seem to be genuine persons (especially seeing their reactions).
From what I have read, here for example, it seems that most of it is!
Which makes the whole thing quite a heroic stunt: he basically gets to stretch everyone's patience to the point he's getting thrown out. Wether you like it or not, you have to give him that. It definitely gets some mojo to sing, in front of a few hundreds Americans, an imaginary Kasakh anthem that says "Kazakhstan greatest country in the world, All other countries are run by little girls" (to the tune of their own anthem)...
On the other side, I will even raise this at the level of, say, a Bowling For Columbine in terms of documentary about the "US & A".
I mean as much as I like Michael Moore's work, it's entertaining, thought provoking but a view to see what he does is he has selected people to talk and make asses of themselves on camera.
That's what Borat does, under the cover of his fictionnal character. He makes people let down their guard.
The aim is different, it's not about proving a particular point, but it's still something about the USA... And our culture in general.
But even without analysing this stands as a magificently tasteless piece of filmmaking and is also gloriously entertaining!
If you want to find out more (beware of spoilers!) you can go here or here (BBC).
Update!
Now that Borat has reached France: articles from Le Monde & Telerama.
And here's an exert from Rolling Stone where Sacha Baron Cohen talks about Borat.
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