Borat

Directed by Larry Charles (2006)

How this movie is so positively perceived is still beyond me. I am not easily offended, but Jesus Borat made me feel uncomfortable at times. It also made me laugh very, very hard. I generally do think that comedy should be "allowed" to be offensive - of course it can then be chosen to be disliked by whomever it offends - because to me comedy is a form of social commentary, and free speech needs to be protected. In the case of Borat, however, since I couldn't tell what scenes were skits and what scenes were him just doing something to an unsuspecting audience, it felt more like just being offensive and less like offensive comedy. Maybe there is some bigger theme of the film that I couldn't quite put together, like perhaps Borat was, in a convoluted way, trying to poke fun at how Americans perceive foreigners? I don't know, and I almost feel offensive suggesting that. In any case this movie was successful enough and somehow not "cancelled" and a sequel came out last year, so I guess I'll have to run with the crowd for now and say I overall thought it was pretty damn funny.

(05/09/21)