Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Nothing is sacred… and that’s okay

Okay, I was supposed to go watch The Queen today but saw that Borat was still showing at the Labia.

I have not been to the Labia in a very long time. I think the last film I saw there was A Brief History Of Time, a documentary based on the Stephen Hawking book of the same title.

Now one of the first places that I visited when I first came to Cape Town was the Labia. It was there where I went to see the not so latest releases on the big screen. Mostly I went there because they had a student discount on movies and if you know me, discount or sale or concession, means a great deal.

I love the Labia, (both, but what I am referring to hear is the cinema complex on Kloof Street that has been there forever). It is an independent, so not Ster Kinekor nor Nu Metro. I remember when I went there, people could smoke in the cinema and it was like those long gone days when cinema was for the discerning few who knew about art and giving birth to it. I thought I’d be some kind of an artist back then. Ohh how time can make a liar out of any of us.

Ten or so years later and the Labia has not changed much. Whilst waiting for Borat to introduce himself a few of the single women like me reached into their hand bags for their snacks, one woman pulled out a Woolworths sammie and another a pie (probably a stake and kidney). I was home. Or as close to it as I can get in this god awful Cape Town. The cinema house itself was intimate, just as I remembered it. Full of cheap skate sixty somethings who, I think, I will be like when I am sixty 9or fifty, or forty or now), single, no nonsense and hungry. Ahhh solitude.

Anyway, given this audience, conservative, old age and women, I was surprised at their sense of humour. You have to have a good dollop of this to enjoy this Ali G character. It went far (portraying Jews as devils that you have to feed money to to appease them, ,take note, Sacha Baron is Jewish!) and it went further (singing the American anthem using the Kazakhstan anthem words) and even further (naked men wrestling naked, one tall and skinny and one short and fat) and it was funny! It was hilarious. Reference to one of my previous posts and you will notice that Borat got a Golden Globe for best Actor, Musical or Comedy: Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhst. How the hell is this possible? Maybe Americans are trying to do reverse psychology on us, they give this movie props, at the same time thinking, oh my god, he is terrible and right?!

What ever its motive, it is funny, it is tastefully disgusting (NOT), it is what it is, Ali G at his best. Booyakasha! Will try and watch the Queen soon.

I give it three spoons.

Brokensword