BORAT!

Just saw a raucous. packed-to-the hilt stadium-seating show of Borat: cultural learnings etc etc at the Village East. I haven't seen an audience that excited since the last installments of the LOTR or Star Wars series. There was even a guy in full-on Borat regalia, moustache included, waiting on line. The result of this amped-up crowd, was this; my boyfriend and I always"Boo" extremely loudly at Mel Gibson's name on the screen when there's an "Apocalypto" preview (which there ALWAYS is, isn't there?). We often get a few laughs, sometimes we get stunned silence. This time we got hoots, cheers, and a rousing chorus of more "boos." An entire theater boing Mel Gibson. It was beautiful. Also, how idiotic does one have to do to show a preview for a Mel Gibson film before Borat? The juxtaposition of anti-semites, real and fake, is a bit too uncomfortable to ignore.

Anyway, there's not a lot to say about this laugh-til-you-vomit movie that hasn't been said in glowing terms by the bigwig critics. I'd really like to see it again, just because every moment is so precisely choreographed and symbolic that the immediate belly-laugh humor sometimes underscores the poignant and disturbing points being made. Cases in point: the evangelical Christians pass a sleeping Borat, apparently homeless, without so much as a nod on their way into church, but are all too eager to save his soul once he comes inside; the southern aristocrats will tolerate even the, literally, ULTIMATE breech of table manners--I'll leave more specific details out--but not the entrance of a black prositute as Borat's "friend."
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant work, Sacha Baron Cohen. I can't wait to see it again.
Bottom line: Go see this movie. And pssst.. pass it on: Jeer as loudly as you can when you see Mel Gibson's name flashed onscreen during those tiresome Apocalypto previews.