Borat

We saw Borat on Saturday, and I've been trying to formulate a way to write about it since then. I didn't put much effort into it yesterday, as it was an otherwise busy day, but also because I didn't really have words to describe it. In any case, it's intended to appear like a Kazhakstani documentary about America. Borat, the character, is based off a Russian doctor the Sascha Cohen met once, and was the most unintentionally funny person he'd ever met. And now he's made a movie.

I can see why the Kazhakstani government had a problem with this movie. It paints all Kazhakstanis as impossibly anti-semitic misogynists. It is an apalling, crass, crude, obscene and horribly, horribly funny movie.

There's few films which can successfully walk the narrow line of unrepentantly obscene humor. Either they completely turn me off, or their really not that obscene. In this move, I laughed as hard as I've laughed at any movie, even while my stomach was turning. It's primarily sexual and racial humor, which is offensive, but not as bad as it could be.

It seems as if the entire movie was improvised, usually without the people involved being aware of what was going on (they clearly saw the camera, but it appears as if they thought it was actually a Kazhakstani documentary about America, and not the comedy intended). Borat manages to offend innumerable people, most of the time with the interviewees feeling uncomfortable without wanting to show how uncomfortable they actually are. And he really goes out of his way to find easily offended people, and stick it to them.

A fair number of scenes were very likely staged, otherwise the filmmakers would probably have been arrested. And it is a comedy that's pretty much about watching other people be offended, confused or both. At the same time, it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

I can't say I recommend this film, as it does put South Park to shame, both on the humor and offensiveness scale. So be warned, but if you choose to go, prepare to laugh until you cry.