BORAT and STRANGER THAN FICTION

I tapped the following comments out in an email I sent to friends promoting the films (along with BUFFY sing-a-long action =). They turned out to be somewhat run-on, but pretty decent bite-sized write-ups. See previous blog entries for the super-sized ramblin...
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BORAT is wickedly, painfully, incredibly funny! I DO think that if you've never seen Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat before, you should sample him online, or on dvd or inDemand via the ALI G SHOW, and find out how his style of unapologetic guerilla comedy sits with you, before diving into the 90 minute deep end and finding yourself so offended and uncomfortable that you can't laugh. His M.O. *is* mean and unfair. It counts on duping his costars into buying into his character's put-on sexist, racist, and ignorant beliefs, and then revealing their darker sides. Some of his marks wholeheartedly embrace Borat's prejudices while others play along to a degree to humor him or just get through their conversation, and others still are decent and principled individuals with only so much patience for ignorance and give him nothing to work with and laugh at except himself.

For many in the audience, it's not an easy thing to get past that element of deceit in Borat's ambush comedy, and that's not a bad thing. But if you can adjust to it, try to see it for the comic swiss army knife that Cohen wields it as, you will be shocked, dismayed, and tickled by what some people will reveal about themselves when Borat gives them the opening, and you will gasp, giggle, and laugh—a lot! And y'know, as much as his hapless interviewees may entertain you, what Borat reveals about himself in this film, to you, your fellow moviegoers, as well as a convention hall of mortagage bankers, may actually get the biggest laughs of all.
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STRANGER THAN FICTION is wonderfully executed surreality, sweetly funny and charming. Will Ferrell is perfect as Harold Crick, the mild-mannered IRS agent with a routine life who one day realizes that he may not be in control of his life, that he is, in fact, a living, breathing character whose every decision and moment is determined by an unknown author's imagination. Unfortunately, this particular neurotic writer's-blocked headcase of an author has a thing for killing off her characters. Maggie Gyllenhall as bakery owner Ana Pasquale is a fiery and sexy crusader with a soft spot for the nice guy. She injects passion and desire into Crick's hohum life, just as he finds out about his creator's death fetish. It's all about timing, donchaknow. Don't let the premise scare you off. The whole I'm-a-character-being-written-in-my-own-life phenomenon is not all that the film is about. In fact, it's just a starting point for storytelling that's about everyday human relationships and connections. Good crack.
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Keep on keepin on~