Borat (2006)

 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan' is one of the great film titles of all time. I recall the cultural phenom it was in the late W. Bush years but am just now getting around to seeing it, and largely as prep for seeing the 'Subsequent Movie-Film'. Borat of course is one of Sacha Baron Cohen's characters from his satirical early aughts program 'Da Ali G Show'. 

Borat Sagdiyex (Cohen) is a not particularly competent reporter from the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan, who travels to America to a make a documentary about the United States. It is largely an excuse for Cohen to interact with people in character, people who are largely not aware that Borat isn't the foreign journalist he says he is. There is a lot of awkward humor, and the film is interesting as a time capsule of the mid 2000's. 

The film even manages to have an arc, which though it focuses on Borat's infatuation with the actress Pamela Anderson (I'm a little surprised she was still kind of relevant circa 2005) still has some pathos. Borat is portrayed as not so much as bad man, as just an ignorant one, and that's what makes him ultimately likable and allows the film to work. A mockumentary of this type was pretty fresh for the time it came out and holds up even today, I give it, a bit to my surprise, ***.