Bore-at?
Before going to see the 12:15 am showing of Borat last night, Brenna, Danny and I stopped off at the 86th Street Pizzeria Uno for "Snack Hours." This is a period of time around 10 pm when their happy hour specials are accompanied by mind-blowing deals on appetizers. I had a mini-pepperoni pizza for $3, and Brenna was chugging some bargain priced Long Island Iced Teas. Sort of ironic, but still highly recommended.
Then came Borat. The theater was packed out for the post-midnight show, and I was already a little bit tuckered out thanks to Uno's delicious pizza and a couple of tasty Budweisers. I was also geared up for some major cinematic controversy; both Anthony Lane and David Edelstein wrote articles condemning Sacha Baron Cohen's brand of humor this week (in the New Yorker and New York, respectively). Both Lane and Edelstein allude that Baron Cohen is a societal danger, while Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote a glowing review calling for an Oscar nomination for Borat. So going into this movie, I was interested which side of the fence I would land on.
It turns out that Borat is actually lukewarm, both in comedy and controversy. Both ends of the critical spectrum are taking it a little bit far with this one. Does the anti-Semitism go a little bit too far in Borat? Definitely; just because Baron Cohen was raised as an Orthodox Jew, and the lame ending where Kazakhs learn that is ok to torture Christians too, doesn't make the overload of Jew-bashing acceptable. But you can't compare Borat to Shoah, a 9 hour documentary about Holocaust deniers, as Edelstein does in his New York review. Borat strives for satire, but when the targets are Muslim countries who despise Jews, and Americans who hate Jews, the satire stops being funny and starts getting a little scary. It’s one thing to parody and satirize the stupidity of anti-Semites, and it’s another thing to portray anti-Semitism as funny. Borat walks a fine line.
As for Travers’s exaltation and demand that Borat be nominated for an Oscar, that is a bit ridiculous. The one thing Travers has right is that Borat is a pretty funny movie. The truly hilarious moments come sporadically: Borat singing the Kazakhs' national anthem at a Virginia rodeo, and his exorcism at a Baptist revival where he starts speaking in tongues are both pretty damn funny. But how can Travers declare Borat as the funniest movie of the year when this movie is just 12 days away?
Then came Borat. The theater was packed out for the post-midnight show, and I was already a little bit tuckered out thanks to Uno's delicious pizza and a couple of tasty Budweisers. I was also geared up for some major cinematic controversy; both Anthony Lane and David Edelstein wrote articles condemning Sacha Baron Cohen's brand of humor this week (in the New Yorker and New York, respectively). Both Lane and Edelstein allude that Baron Cohen is a societal danger, while Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote a glowing review calling for an Oscar nomination for Borat. So going into this movie, I was interested which side of the fence I would land on.
It turns out that Borat is actually lukewarm, both in comedy and controversy. Both ends of the critical spectrum are taking it a little bit far with this one. Does the anti-Semitism go a little bit too far in Borat? Definitely; just because Baron Cohen was raised as an Orthodox Jew, and the lame ending where Kazakhs learn that is ok to torture Christians too, doesn't make the overload of Jew-bashing acceptable. But you can't compare Borat to Shoah, a 9 hour documentary about Holocaust deniers, as Edelstein does in his New York review. Borat strives for satire, but when the targets are Muslim countries who despise Jews, and Americans who hate Jews, the satire stops being funny and starts getting a little scary. It’s one thing to parody and satirize the stupidity of anti-Semites, and it’s another thing to portray anti-Semitism as funny. Borat walks a fine line.
As for Travers’s exaltation and demand that Borat be nominated for an Oscar, that is a bit ridiculous. The one thing Travers has right is that Borat is a pretty funny movie. The truly hilarious moments come sporadically: Borat singing the Kazakhs' national anthem at a Virginia rodeo, and his exorcism at a Baptist revival where he starts speaking in tongues are both pretty damn funny. But how can Travers declare Borat as the funniest movie of the year when this movie is just 12 days away?
posted by Alexander at 8:35 AM
2 Comments:
no more Uno's in the bay area makes me sad :(
To answer our Borat question:
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=2643681&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
Post a Comment
<< Home