Friday

At first I thought Borat was going to be a puerile comedy for overgrown teenagers. Then, recently, friends have told me it's good, I've read encouraging reviews of it from respectable online websites, and it's just been nominated for some Golden Globes. So, today I went to see it. I think it's somewhere in-between those two extremes. I have never really liked comedy which bases itself on deceiving others, so perhaps I'm not a good one to judge this. I therefore liked the parts which were obviously fictional, whereas some people might see these as the worst bits. Nonetheless, there were a lot of insights into a American culture. The character he presents to people, a bit like Louis Theroux, makes them naturally assume they are superior and start talking down to him, opening up in ways they had not expected, and saying things they later regret. It is a very sensitive interviewing technique if you look at it like that. And there are some parts of the film that are genuinely frightening: when they are driving through the black neighbourhoods of a city at night and stop to talk to a gang of youths. Also, is the thing with Pamela Anderson real? I'm still not sure. Overall, though, this isn't one of the best films around, but it is worth seeing eventually. You'll laugh, even if you may question afterwards if you should have been laughing.