Ugh, Borat

It's taken me three days to watch the Borat movie. I don't like watching aggressive confrontations and I'm not a fan of average people being made to feel uncomfortable, so I watched it in chunks, sometimes with my head partly turned away.

This is too bad because I really like the Borat CHARACTER. I think he's much more consistent than Sacha Cohen's other characters, and when he gets on a roll (at the doctor's office, for instance, or at the Pentecostal meeting), he's disturbingly captivating.

And fearless. Jeez, it's just INCREDIBLE the way people respond to him in New York City. Cohen is apparently seeking to reveal western insanity through Borat, and watching men scream at him in the subway or run away from him on the street certainly makes the point: yes, humans are sick.

But then he's insulting a nice couple at a Bed & Breakfast, or disturbing everybody at a high class dinner, or smashing up an antique shop, and I can't help wondering: why? If anything these scenes show us how ACCOMODATING people can be, far beyond when they should have kicked him out. Borat ceases to be a catylist and becomes, simply, a horrifying nuisance. And that's when I can't watch.

My favourite moments were the scripted parts. I think Cohen is much funnier when he isn't disturbing innocent bystanders. And kudos to Pamela Anderson for playing along. But jeez, this stuff always leaves me feeling icky, and not just because I saw a hairy, obese man sitting on Cohen's face.

Alright, it was worth it for the naked fight. Yes.