(andPOP) - It is not a critic's job to provide an accurate barometer of what the public will and will not like. We may act like it is sometimes, but the fact is no one critic can be a perfect barometer for every audience's emotional, intellectual, spiritual etc. response to a given movie. Part of this reason, of course, is the lack of diversity in critics - more often than not (this critic included) they are White and/or Male. Another reason, however, is there simply is no singular audience response. Movies have a profound capacity to divide audiences in a way that I've noticed theatre, television, music, and even books do not. A film like, say, "The Godfather" or "Citizen Kane" may stand the test of time and be near-universally regarded as among the greatest movies ever made, but that doesn't mean you won't find people who didn't like "The Godfather" or "Citizen Kane." Rotten Tomatoes, the website which keeps track of critical reaction has, in its history, had seven movies score 100% on the tomatometer, and even fewer score 0. By contrast, most video games on its sister site, rottentomatoesgames.com, score 100% or 0% on a regular basis.
However, difficult as it is for the universal quality of movies to be analyzed, it is not as difficult as analyzing what makes us laugh. In comedy more than anything, I believe, one person's "Jackass" is another person's "Shakespeare in Love". And so the best you can hope for in gauging a critic's response is figuring out how much that critic's tastes mesh with yours and planning accordingly.
With this in mind, I will inform you that inasmuch as comedy can be analyzed, and declared as universally "funny," "Borat" is funny. Not just grinning, snorting, occasional belly laugh funny, but sustained, coughing, rolling-in-the-aisles funny. I haven't been with an audience (and the audience was considerable) that laughed this much at a movie since "There's Something About Mary."
I will also inform you that, in the eyes of this critic, who loved the Farrelly Brothers' 1998 masterpiece, "Borat" is no "There's Something About Mary."
Inasmuch as it is difficult to analyze what makes someone laugh, I find that statement difficult to explain. Perhaps this clip from YouTube will help me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb3IMTJjzfo
Everyone seen it? Good. The central conceit of "Throw The Jew Down The Well" is that Borat, as played by Cambridge native (and proud Jew) Sacha Baron Cohen, is a sexist, racist, anti-Semitic persona, which he has the uncanny ability of never breaking out of. However, the people he entertains in the bar aren't in on the joke, and so what you're seeing is the anti-Semitic ideals lurking just beneath the surface of the people in that Texas bar.
"Borat" -- the full title is actually "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" -- is basically a series of these sketches, with Cohen revealing various peoples' sexist, racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, and evangelical leanings, with the underlying message, "yeah folks, this stuff still exists." Some of it's funny. Some of it's just plain chilling. Depends on your tolerance for sexist, racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, and evangelical humour.
Personally, I found the evangelical humour funny. But then I have cousins who think I'm going to Hell. As someone who's seen his share of anti-Semitism (and all but one of my closest friends are Jewish), I never particularly liked the "Throw The Jew Down The Well" sketch (my friends love it), and I don't particularly care for genuine racism, sexism, and homophobia to be rampant in my humour either. I found "Borat" half chilling, half funny.
It won't surprise me if this movie is considered a classic in years to come. Like "This Is Spinal Tap," the movies' other great mockumentary, it's too original and its funny moments too funny for it not to be. Individual opinions, however, will vary.
There is some written material. The trailer - "this is Natalya. She is number four prostitute in all of Kazakhstan" - opens the movie. There are a few similar parts scattered throughout. I found these to be among the funniest sequences while the audience stood stone silent. Also, there is a sequence that, while skillfully shot, is unlikely to appeal to any member of the audience: Cohen engaged in a wrestling match that appears to be gay sex with a naked man who is, shall we say, horizontally challenged.
4*
