Georgia Mendians called last week arguing that I was wrong to give four stars to "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."
"It's an insult to my intelligence, and it's despicable," she said. "Russia has banned it because it's an insult to its neighboring country. Why did you give it four stars?"
Georgia, you can't argue me out of a belly laugh, let alone hundreds of belly laughs. The film had me cracking up from the opening scene, nearly continuously until the end, which is the best result you can wish for from a comedy. "Borat" is lean, mean and unclean, and it holds up a shocking mirror to American culture in a satire that shows the prejudices of real people to be alarmingly close to those of the fictional Borat.
One part of the appeal of "Borat" is that most of the humor is so irredeemably, unapologetically wrong that there's a guilty pleasure in watching. The other part comes from actor Sacha Baron Cohen's genius in not only exploiting his own comic talents, but drawing out comical reactions from the unsuspecting marks he films. "Borat" may skate on thin, cracked ice with its blatant racism and stereotyping, but it manages to stay upright through slick skill and force of will. Although "Borat" is definitely not for all tastes, it's a superb choice for anyone looking to convulse in laughter for 84 minutes.
People are also reading…
Phil's ReView column appears in Sunday's Accent. This Sunday, Phil writes about "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring."
