Borat is a reality-based movie with a fearless Sacha Baron Cohen who performs a kind of street theater improvisation that leaves you laughing.
The mockumentary is a unique art form that is in direct response to the documentary film. This is Spinal Tap is a classic mockumentary that pokes fun at hair-metal bands, The Beatles, and the music industry. Part of the charm of the mockumentary is its believability. For some parts of the movie you feel as if you are witnessing unscripted, unrehearsed words and actions from the film players. But these are indeed scripted movies that include some improvisation.
Borat is a new kind of mockumentary where not all of the players are in on the script or storyline. Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen plays an incredibly hairy character called Borat who claims to be from Kazakstan. The film shows us the village Borat claims as his home country. It is a poor, ramshackle place with eastern-European looking people who play the parts of extras.
Borat travels to the United States to make a documentary of the US for his village. He visits with a Jewish couple who own a bed and breakfast, an RV of frat boys, and a southern etiquette society. None of these real people (not characters, not movie actors) knew up front that they were participating in the filming of a mockumentary though, of course, they could see the ever-present camera. Afterwards they were asked to sign releases, but these people seemed to think the character of Borat was real during the filming. One well-meaning etiquette club woman gives Borat an impromptu (and ridiculous) lesson in toiletry after he returns to the dinner table from the bathroom with a bag of his poo and asks where he should dispose of the bag.
This method of making a movie has more in common with Candid Camera or Punk'd than with a true mockumentary which means Borat ends up as a reality-based movie. I don't recommend this method because it can result in messy lawsuits, such as those filed by several of the people who ended up in Borat who claimed they didn't know they were going to be in a movie. The town of Glod, Romania is also suing claiming they were lied to about the nature of the movie. They are also disturbed that they were made fun of in the movie because of their extreme poverty and lack of running water.
The unpolitical-correctness and satire of Borat rise above the controversy. Borat make good for people of happy Kazakstan!
