"Borat" cold turkey

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What film caught the strongest hottest buzz out of the Toronto Film Festival? Easy -- Sacha Baron Cohen 's Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (20th Century Fox, 11.3). I didn't catch it in Toronto (I never do midnight screenings at film festivals plus I'm always super-busy so I missed the one non-midnight showing) but I knew there'd be opportunities to see it in L.A., either in late September or sometime in October.

Borat is the hottest envelope-pushing comedy going right now; some have even suggested that Cohen could be in line for a Best Actor nomination. And guess what? Borat opens five weeks from now and Fox has no L.A. press screenings scheduled between now and November 2nd. Strange as this sounds, that's what I've been told. So if you're based here and you haven't seen it by now, you're out of luck and will have to go cold turkey all next week and throughout the entire month of October.

comment #1

Teh Awesome says ...

Borat should already be doing business now. I wonder if the momentum will still be there when they open wide. The one big, crazy scene is likely to be damaged in its target demographics by advance hype and internet chatter. And Jackass II had a similar scene with the midget and the sumo guy, maybe to some people Borat will seem to be following Jackass's lead (though the executuion in Borat is genius and 100% better designed and paced).

Score one for Borat though with the funny press conference to invite OJ at the press screening.

comment #2

Goulet says ...

Dude, I'm not in LA, but it's already been screening in Montreal and all over the place. You haven't been talking to the right people, there's been TONS of sneak previews already across North America, in every major city.

comment #3

Craptastic says ...

His press conference in front of the White House was one of the funniest things I've seen in ages. What was great about it was... what the fuck was the difference between what he said and what is said every day on television by "real politicians".

Premiere Bush.

Christ, he's the new Peter Sellers-- only better.

comment #4

berg says ...

Yes, Borat is consistently funny and I especially laughed out loud at the scene where Borat brings his poop in a bag from his trip to the bathroom and asks his host what to do with it, and also the scene with the kids, bear, and ice cream trip ... but I gotta tell ya, I laughed harder at two of the scenes in Running with Scissors. ... Wasn't there a Borat-esque guy on the Internet in like 1999 - some guy from an obscure Eastern European country who had a website with a bunch of dorky pics?

comment #5

fnt says ...

I think Wells means press screenings as opposed to Myspace sneaks and the such.

I went to the LA one -- waited six damn hours (due to screening screw ups). There is no other movie opening this year that I would do that for.

And it was well worth it.

comment #6

wesserbisser says ...

Berg,

You are thinking of Mahir from Turkey:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahir_Cagri

comment #7

Jay T. says ...

Giving "Borat" an Oscar is a hell of a lot better than Roberto Benigni.

comment #8

Mike Ock says ...

I saw Borat this week in NYC at a free screening. I agree it's hilarious, and yes in my opinion I can't think of a better performance by a male lead this year.

I've never seen his show (though I've heard of it, and I knew this was a character he played), or seen any trailers, so I had no idea this thing was unscripted for the first 20 min or so.

I won't ruin anything for anyone who hasn't seen it, but he deserves some recognition for being able to stay in character and improv the way he does in the insane scenes in this movie.

If they Academy had any balls, they'd at least reward Sasha Baron Cohen with a nomination.

comment #9

L.B. says ...

Damn straight, Jay T. I couldn't agree more. I'd want him to win just to hear his acceptance speech. (I felt the same way about Bill Murray, so that's no good luck charm, unfortunately.)

comment #10

Cadavra says ...

A year ago everyone was convinced Carell was gonna get an Oscar nomination for 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN. Didn't happen for him--won't happen for Cohen. Deal with it.

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