At Home with John and Debbie

A few of us went to see the Borat film last week. It was hilarious, excruciating, shocking and horrifying by turn.

There seem to be two views about how Americans get treated in the film.

• That their various failings mean they fully deserve the humiliation they get
• That they are “easy targets” used for cheap laughs. (this is the Mark Kermode view)

As far as I’m concerned, the truth is somewhere in between. Some of the unsuspecting interviewees are decent people, and they come across as such. For example, the feminists come across with dignity, as do the well-to-do Southern socialites who tolerate Borat’s crass table manners with flawless politeness until things are pushed too far.

Meanwhile the racist rodeo guy comes across as a monster, and the sexist frat boys come across as idiots.

So everything works out peachy.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 13th, 2006 at 16:40 and is filed under Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.