2007, 83m
Although it does manage to get some bursts of low grade laughter, the film is more designed to make one squirm by its vulgarity.
Ebert, to my discomfiture, thought otherwise. To each his own :
"Very nice. I like "Borat" very much. I think it is, as everybody has been saying, the funniest movie in years. And not because it is dumb (although it's very dumb), but because it is smart (and it is very smart). The full title is "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." Every single word in that title (including "for" and both "of's") is, in its context, really funny. If you have to ask why, then you probably won't understand why "Borat" is funny, either. But that doesn't seem likely."
Manohla Dargis is more nuanced:
".....the jackass has landed...gets better or worse, sometimes at the same time......a gun clerk’s suggestion of what kind of gun to use to hunt Jews will freeze your blood....the brilliance of “Borat” is that its comedy is as pitiless as its social satire, and as brainy..... comic energy and timing informs every scene.....they also clear room for two hairy men to wrestle nude in a gaspingly raw interlude of physical slapstick that nearly blasts a hole in the film....clenched in unspeakably crude formation, those hairy bodies inspire enormous laughs......with loads of smut and acres of body hair, relieving you of the burden of having to juggle your laughter with your increasingly abused conscience.....just when you’re ready to cry, you howl."
Although it does manage to get some bursts of low grade laughter, the film is more designed to make one squirm by its vulgarity.
Ebert, to my discomfiture, thought otherwise. To each his own :
"Very nice. I like "Borat" very much. I think it is, as everybody has been saying, the funniest movie in years. And not because it is dumb (although it's very dumb), but because it is smart (and it is very smart). The full title is "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." Every single word in that title (including "for" and both "of's") is, in its context, really funny. If you have to ask why, then you probably won't understand why "Borat" is funny, either. But that doesn't seem likely."
Manohla Dargis is more nuanced:
".....the jackass has landed...gets better or worse, sometimes at the same time......a gun clerk’s suggestion of what kind of gun to use to hunt Jews will freeze your blood....the brilliance of “Borat” is that its comedy is as pitiless as its social satire, and as brainy..... comic energy and timing informs every scene.....they also clear room for two hairy men to wrestle nude in a gaspingly raw interlude of physical slapstick that nearly blasts a hole in the film....clenched in unspeakably crude formation, those hairy bodies inspire enormous laughs......with loads of smut and acres of body hair, relieving you of the burden of having to juggle your laughter with your increasingly abused conscience.....just when you’re ready to cry, you howl."
2 comments:
It's a shocking comedy which also made me cringe many times, but it's also sharp and ruthless.
The comic talent of a very pungent variety is obvious, so the smuttiness could have been lowered.
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