My apology to Borat’s Sacha Baron Cohen - Anthony Clavane
If I was to write a memoir, it would be called I Know I Was Wrong. This is not down to any false humility on my part. It’s down to a realistic assessment of my poor calls over the years.
Here are just a few things I have been wrong about: ultra-processed food, Ant and Dec, Brexit, Strictly, Trump, video games, the iPhone and several initially-disappointing-but-ultimately-excellent Mountain Goats albums.
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Hide AdHaving watched his two new films, back-to-back, over the course of last weekend – I know how to live – I would like to issue my latest mea culpa to Sacha Baron Cohen.
Reviewing his TV series Who Is America? in this column two-and-a-bit years ago, I suggested that the prankster’s schtick was wearing thin. Berating him for his terrible northern accent in the risible film Grimsby, and mentioning as supporting evidence its barely watchable predecessor The Dictator, I concluded that he was, in fact, a busted flush.
Sacha, I apologise. To adopt the most famous catchphrase of your most famous character, Borat Sagdiyev, I now think you are “very nice!”
I was greatly amused by both the title and contents (and length) of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
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Hide AdIt is a sequel to the cringe-inducing, crude and puerile 2006 Borat film. I’m not normally a fan of toilet humour but there was something about the slapstick, visual gags and well-aimed pranks which had me in fits.
The follow-up mockumentary is just as cringe-inducing, crude and puerile, but it is also surprisingly moving and poignant. It is not only laugh-out-loud funny but also a brave intervention in the toxic world of American politics.
Brave seems an odd word to describe a comedian. And anti-Trump comedians are so common these days as to be practically worthless.
Borat, however, takes anti-Trump satire to a new, very risky – and sometimes dangerous – level. It would be hard to imagine any of the myriad “cutting edge” satirists on our cosy TV panel shows wearing, as Cohen does throughout the movie, a bulletproof vest.
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Hide AdOr sneaking into a Mike Pence rally dressed as the president, carrying his “daughter” on his shoulder.
Or fleeing an angry mob at a far-right convention – some of them “sieg heiling” – after singing a Country and Western song about the Wuhan flu and chopping up journalists “like the Saudis do.”
Or pulling off a prank on Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who appears to end up in a compromising position with a young woman in a hotel room – something Giuliani has denied.
Those scenes are not just played for cheap laughs. They are making a point about the casual bigotry, unchecked racism and double standards of American political life.
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Hide AdIn The Trial of the Chicago 7, Baron Cohen is perfectly cast as a self-styled prankster from a previous age. Aaron Sorkin’s homage to the 1960s radical protest movement has its faults – telling not showing, implausibly smart dialogue, rose-tinted anti-heroes – but Sacha is outstanding as the charismatic activist Abbie Hoffman.
Sorkin has assembled a wonderful ensemble of actors but Baron Cohen is the stand-out performer here. Despite his apparently dodgy Boston accent, he is a good bet for a best supporting actor Oscar.
Although set in the late 60s, this captivating courtroom drama is as much about the present as the past. It holds a mirror up to the endemic racism and police brutality of both eras.
“The similarities between (them) are chilling,” Sorkin said. “The movie was relevant when we were making it. We didn’t need it to get more relevant, but it did.”
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Hide AdUnsurprisingly, The Donald refuses to be amused by the multi-voiced star. Indeed, he called him a “creep” and a “phoney guy”.
To which the actor responded: “I don’t find you funny either.” In a few days time, when they vote in the presidential election, we will discover whether the Americans agree with Baron Cohen that Trump is no longer a laughing matter.
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