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Views From Your Windows
The non-election-related water cooler question: Did you see Borat? Did you brave crowds of people (mad rush at multiplexes, lines around the block at smaller theaters) to witness a Jewish Englishman portray a hapless Kazakh journalist with a chicken in his suitcase? Did you wonder how the crew was not arrested? Everywhere we went, people were talking about Borat. At the restaurant. At the grocery store. In the subway. All. Talking. About. Borat. Hell, people were buying tickets to Babel and The Departed because they couldn't see Borat. Which proves that if you send your silly, controversial, anti-Semitic mustachioed character on every news outlet possible and you'll get a number one movie.
Did you enjoy the movie? We did and spent most of Saturday watching deleted scenes on YouTube. One thing that we didn't like about Borat: The fact that we had to see about a gazillion trailers beforehand. Sure, we understand that marketers want to show off their movies, but most of them were marketed to the frat-boy demographic - Balls of Fury, Smokin' Aces, The Tenacious D movie, Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj - and the trailers became repellent.
And the NY Times' David Carr had boycotted the film ("Who wants to see yet another film of some guy who can’t type making fun of his profession?") and wasn't expecting Borat to be a success: "Who would have thought that a fresh, wildly inventive comedy would obliterate hackneyed reruns of franchises that did not have much rubber on their tire to begin with?"
Photograph of the AMC Empire 25 on 42nd Street
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I saw Borat last night. There were a few very funny scenes, but overall it was a letdown. I wouldn't have even gone if TimeOut hadn't given it such a glowing review, so I was expecting better. Plus, Borat makes me generally uncomfortable.
BORAT: A PREDICTION
Make no mistake about it: "Borat" is locked and loaded, ready to invade the public consciousness. Get ready to say goodbye to it.
When "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" is released tomorrow, there will be a short window of time, from about 6pm on Friday to about 10pm on Sunday, when the film's impact will sit in perfect equilibrium with both its mass appeal and its comic potency. "The hip eclipse", let's call it. I say 10pm because somewhere in Oxnard, CA, 7pm local time, a young Friday's waiter will deliver a plate of Jack Daniel's Chicken Strips and punctuate it with the phrase "You laaaaaaiik!!!!!". This will be the first sign of the "Borat" outbreak - what will eventually be transmitted through contact with co-workers, on airplanes and in casinos, and GOOD LORD, in bars everywhere.
It won't be the fault of the movie, and it certainly won't be the fault of Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat's creator. It will be due to a society set up to adopt, consume and then divorce a trend in dizzying time. The infrastructure is ripe for it, a now perfectly balanced sphere of blogs, critiques, and various other forms of media with which to hijack the trend. Borat impressionists will appear on youtube, and a home-made mega-mix of lines from the movie will be cobbled together by a 14 year old and placed incongruously atop a house drum beat. It will be an internet sensation. And while Dayton, Ohio greets it, the Lower East Side will have already eulogized it. If you don't believe me when I say we will kill it by hugging it too hard, look at what happened to Brokeback Mountain - "I wish I could quit you" became a ready-mixed punch line for months, and it wasn't even trying. (Even the word "brokeback" itself came to be an out of the box bon mot.) We've been waiting for the next "WAY!" and "NOT!" for a long time. And we're about to get it in the form of "high five!" and "wa-wa-wee-wah!"
And if you're still wondering what leg I have to stand on with this, just remember: I was truly hip for three weeks back in 2001.
Yakshimesh!!!!
i saw borat friday. overall, a let down. the movie is too curt and meandering. the tv show (british and hbo) was way more intelligent and funny. oh well. here comes another lil jon phenomenon amongst stupid white kids everywhere
Not the funniest movie ever made, but this was definitely the loudest and longest I've laughed at a theater in a long time. I would have preferred the movie to be more interactions with Americans (much like the segments in Da Ali G Show) versus the Pamela Anderson mission. Although the part at the yard sale ("Gypsy, do not shrink me") was great. Overall, a solid B+.
I loved Oksana the bear.
I love you, Jen! "frat-boy demographic"
I hate that Van wilder guy. anyway, just tape the HBO ali g. show marathon and you're set.
I thought the film did a great job of satirizing American attitudes towards foreigners & minorities. It's also not easy to make a brief comedy sketch into a full length movie - and while the plot may have been paper-thin at times, overall I think it was a very funny film that worked pretty well.
I saw it last night and enjoyed it (although the booze my friend and I snuck into the theater may have had something to do with it).
One trailer you didn't mention was for "Mel Gibson's Apocalypto." I hissed when his name came up and was surprised no one else reacted to it (they didn't at "The Prestige" either). Have we all forgotten/forgiven Mr. Anti-Semitism so quickly? I expected more from usually-outspoken New Yorkers. I mean, c'mon - the dude even put his NAME in the film title!
But back to Borat...it's not often that a film makes you both laugh at and fear the rest of America at the same time.
a funny movie , should have just waited for DVD...Seemed more staged than his normal interviews.. Seeing all the previews and coming attractions spoiled most of the funny parts of movie.
Over all a funny movie but not better than usual skits available online...
wait for dvd instead of sitting in crowded theater eating 12$ popcorn..
Ah yes. Middle America...so scary! And so stupid!
It's a fact that, outside of the beacon of enlightenment and tolerance that is New York City, people spend all of their time making fun of and then lynching foreigners, brown people, Jews, etc. It's a wonder they have time to do anything else. Thank goodness we are better than them.
If only America were more like Europe where, were he to sing a song like "Throw the Muslim Down the Well", Sacha Baron Cohen would surely be ridden out of town on a rail. And asked, politely, to never come back again.
This movie isn't anti-Semitic, it’s anti-Muslim. Why doesn't anyone get that? Baron-Cohen portrays "Borat" as a misogynistic, homophobic, anti-Semitic buffoon, and his home country, Khazakstan (in reality a moderate, Muslim society), as an incestuous backwater. What would people think if a Muslim-born comic wildly spoofed the "otherness" of, say, a Jewish settler of the occupied territories? Would we find it so laugh-out-loud funny? I guarantee you we’ll look back at this film as the 21st-century equivalent of an Al Jolson minstrel show. Even if it isn't pointedly raccist, it's still extremely distasteful.
thank you, chunk. you took the words right out of my fingertips.
to [10]: Why doesn't anyone get that? Because that accusation is ludicrous. Cohen's character doesn't have an ounce of "muslim" in it. Where are the allahu akbars? The burkas? The terrorist threats? Oh yeah, there aren't any.
Cohen uses Kazakhstan because it's still somewhat mysterious to most people, compared to Eastern Europe, therefore making the character more credible.
I would think all the Soviet republics are still unknown to most people. Wait? there's a Georgia in Russia? who knew?
Even the women NYC marathon winner is mysterious to most people. What did Cosmo K. say? "the ukriane is weak".
mel gibson may be a looney, but he's also making movies in dead languages. quiche mayan in the motherfucking house! i am so there.
chunk: sorry, but these people DO exist (in "Middle America" as well as right here in NYC). Did you see the movie, or are you talking about something without any firsthand knowledge of it? Just curious.
Also, you are fooling yourself if you really think Europe is more racially tolerant than the U.S. -- not to mention the fact that you deride the film for saying Americans are intolerant, then in the next sentence you praise Europeans for being more tolerant than Americans. Sorry, it's one or the other.
To be or not to be sarcastic -- that is the question. Perhaps 'tis nobler to flip flop twixt paragraphs and thus confuse the audience...
The amount/type of trailers depends on which theatre you saw the movie at. If you saw it at Village East, there were trailers for Flannel Pajamas, Apocalypto, a new Sarah Michelle Gellar movie, etc. No frat boy movies.
I am from the Midwest and I have written many letters protesting this movie. I think this man is shameful to spread sinful lies about a simple, god-fearing, flag-waiving region such as ours. I will pray to our lord and savior baby jesus, for this man to come to his senses...
Until then, I will wait hear at this abortion clinic until the next one comes out...
bob: I saw it in Chelsea -- and weirdly, I got all the frat boy trailers.
To JS:
>Cohen's character doesn't have an ounce
>of "Muslim" in it. Where are the allahu akbars?
>The burkas? The terrorist threats?
That's all you think of when you think of muslim cuture? Sad, dude. Your comment displays the same ignorant-racist attitude as the ugly Americans who sing along with Borat "throw the Jew down the well." The suffix "-istan" or "-stan" derives from the Persian word for land, so just by choosing Kazakhstan as some useless place to mine for laughs you're already hinting at "Muslim." And by giving the character an oversized mustache, and assigning him all of the negative cultural stereotypes the west is fond of pinning on Muslims (anti-Jewish, misogynistic), you can’t deny there’s something to it. This film makes people laugh, because in part, it reinforces the crass image Americans and Britons have of Muslims. Like I said, its not overt, it may not even be intentional, but it’s absolutely legible if you’re paying attention and you know anything about geography or history.
arthur-
Congratulations! you got the point.
arthur, you are making more blanket statements about muslims than i believe borat does. you assume he must be muslim just because he's anti-jewish and misogynistic. it never once occurred to me he was suppose to be muslim at all, and if you asked baron cohen i'm sure he would affirm that. to me borat is just supposed to be a stereoptype of the isolated, old-world that doesn't really exist anymore- you know, someone who speaks broken english,thinks the eagles are the height of cool, and has never used a computer before.
and gwin, you are an absolute retard. the fact of the matter is that america is by and large more tolerant than the majority of other countries out there. there i said it.
arthur, to be fair, there's a few people in the honkey tonk who look utterly disgusted.
and besides, the overall lesson to take from borat is "never be polite to foreigners, for they may have video cameras."
Too much like the TV segments from several years ago. He re-used a lot of scenarios for the US audience who obviously haven't seen the tv show. ho-hum.
Hey arthur/douchebag, it's not anti-muslim. Borat is waaay more Russian/Ukrainian/Eastern European than he is say Turkish or Arabic or Pakistani. Ever been to St. Petersburg? Then you'll know what he means by "beat the gypsy". Jesus he even uses cyrillic everywhere. Anyway, he's a jew so he's not anti-semitic, and he's playing an eastern european, not an arab. And he's making fun of southern hilbillies who go to megacrazychurch. And he's making fun of idiot frats.
The great irony here is the idiot frats he's making fun of, many of which are seeing and laughing at the movie. I imagine the only person not laughing at the movie is the Mississippi supreme court justice who spoke at pentecostal. Or that old grandpa homophobe cowboy.
Anyway, his shtick is the same as Yakov Smirnoff (albeit a zillion times funnier). In America, you go to theater to watch movie the Rock. In Soviet Russia, you break rock in gulag.
fishtale: sorry dude, but you totally missed my point. I was merely pointing out the seeming contradictions in someone else's post - I made no general, declarative statement of my own about the relative intolerance of America(in fact, I questioned the idea that Europe was more tolerant than America). Use your reading comprehension skills much?
It's really only offensive to Muslims. Borat is like a muslim arab middle eastern stereotype. Even though Borat isn't muslim (he worships the hawk). Islam is the major religion of Kazakhstan. Hell, even Kazakhstan sounds like Pakistan and Afghanistan, 2 very muslim countries. He's like Elaine from Seinfeld. Even though her character isn't Jewish she plays the Jew Girl Stereotype. And Since Sasha Cohen is Jewish and he goes around town saying stuff in the Borat Disguise to get people to show their anti-semitism I think there is some underhanded stuff going on. For example if a ethnic Muslim were to dress like a Rabbi and infiltrate Jewish Orthodox Zionist temples and say stuff that was inflammatory like "throw the muslim down the well" and the zionists were to whole hardedly agree with him and he were to make a movie about it and show it to everyone would it have the same effect?
You're not actually laughing at the opinions of Americans. The people in all of the Borat sketches/movie set ups are pushed to extremes and provoked into behaviour they would probably never exhibit without Cohen's own intervention. What you dont see are the failed skits - the ones where middle america DIDNT react to Borat's ever increasing provocation. Because that wouldnt make a particularly funny movie
The whole point that Sasha cohen chose Kazakhstan is so that people would confuse it with Afghanistan. His whole shtick is about deception and manipulation. Would people laugh if they knew he was a Jew in Disguise when he says "throw the jew down the well?". My whole point is not to say Sasha Cohen is not funny, cause I find him hilarious my point is to say What is his "Ulterior Motive?".Why is his other alter ego "Ali G" a caricature of a muslim rapper? Why is this jew going to great lengths to be muslim? Why would he dress like some funny speaking foreign accent guy who say's anti-semetic remarks? is it to show people are racist? cause, duh. I already knew that. So what else is there? Borat is in the same vein as Larry the Cable guy. The only difference is that Borat is funny. at the moment.
For those who know that Sasha is Jewish and read the trade mags. But what if you went in not knowing that he was Jewish and heard him say those things. Then you'd be pissed off right? It's just like this guy in NYC who dressed as Hitler for Halloween and went to his Jewish school. A lot of people were pissed off. Then he uses the whole "but I'm jewish and it was a joke, why can't you laugh at it?" but he knew that it would incite people because he dressed as charlie chaplin on the train. Same with Borat. He makes sure that you know he's Jewish. In fact it's the first thing you pretty much read in every article about him. It's like they try to justify the anti-semetic jokes
Gwin: I appreciate your acknowledgement that the contradictions were merely "seeming".
Jewguy, you're a retard. He didn't choose Kazakstan because it rhymes with Afghanastan or Osamastan, he chose it because nobody's ever heard of it or if they have they know nothing about it, couldn't point to it on a map, and have no intention of ever going. Considering that the 11 O'Clock show has been around since the 90s, and I believe Borat showed up circa 2000, your entire argument is flawed.
And on the whole Ali G/Muslim rapper thing - you clearly haven't spent any amount of time in London, have you, to understand any pop culture references of his.
btw I'm of the jew, and I heard "throw the jew down the well", and I thought it was some of the funniest shit I ever heard, because it's making fun of idiots like you who don't get the joke. That includes making fun of anti-semites, and making fun of the people who get upset because THEY DON'T GET THE JOKE. That's what makes it funny. People like you.
America....Powdered milk, powdered eggs, baby powder...what a country!"
Sorry, Jelena I thought you were from the Ukraine. you're from Latvia, the only other famous Latvian is Fred from Mars.
Anyway, there's a deep history of Ukraines in NYC.
Yakov. I do get the joke. I find it hilarious. I dislike the jews so I find it hilarious. I didn't dispute the fact that Sasha Cohen is funny, merely that he has an insidious ulterior motive to frame muslims. And he also stole all of yakov Smirnoff's shtick added some anti-semitism and tom green and made 25 million dollars on opening weekend. Funny considering that Yakov Smirnoff was voted 4th unfunniest comedian in Maxim.
Hey, I hate the jew and hate the muslim terrorist. Why so many you confuse?
About 55% of the Kazakh people aren't even Muslim.
I'm constantly amazed at what passes for logic here in New York.
according to the Kazakhstan Government embessy 57% of Kazakhstan is muslim. http://www.kazakhstanembassy.org.uk/cgi-bin/index/57%5B/url%5D
take that dumbass.
You're all giving this guy far too much intellectual credit.
Yes, he was funny as Ali G; Borat is the same character - a caricature who feigns ignorance to get away with asking outlandish questions to anyone dumb enough not to understand what it is to 'get played.' It's a lot less of a social commentary in terms of racism as it is a critique of an older generation not in sync with the younger generation's sense of humor.
This is comedy for the Jackass crowd, pure and simple.
Oh, and Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert is much better at it than Sacha Cohen ever was.
Anonymass. No, it's not like John Stewart (unless you f'd up making the 11 O'Clock show comparison, but you'd still be wrong). Ali G/Borat is IMPROV.
It's no more improv than the guest interviews that both Stewart and Colbert do off-the-cuff.
it's called satire.
he's satirizing american perceptions of the muslim world by playing a blown out middle eastern caricature. (i know, big duh, but maybe not). he's an outsider who pretends to be an insider, but the joke's on us. sarah silverman has been doing related schtick, but people tolerate her because she's attractive. but she's not particularly gutsy. she's not immersed in the joke.
the joke is (post-post-?)postmodern. modern even.
sure, there are some VERY uncomfortable moments in the film, but comedy isn't really about comfort. if it were, well it would be like all that frat pack, scato-humor churl that's been shovelled down our gullets for the past 5 years.
a lot of my laughter from this film wasn't because of hilarity, it was out of discomfort and nerves. i think it's a fairly successful film. but as the adl says, the overall success of its "message" can only be gauged by our sophistication as an audience.
I saw it last week, It's funny, A little bit on the aimless side for me . It seemed as if the storyline was geared around the comedy and only the comedy . " Did any of what I just said make any sense" ? The sad thing here is, It's the truth ! There was no real story behind the comedy of this movie . It was funny as hell though , I'll give him that ! I've never seen his show though . *Signing off "Not Amused the movie critic"