10 Greatest Mockumentary Films Of All Time
2. Borat
Sacha Baron Cohen has a real talent for making the ridiculous seem sublime. Or maybe it’s the other way round. Either way his most prescient character creation is also his most genius. Borat is arguably the greatest character creation in recent memory. The pretence is so simple, yet completely inspired. Like having cold pizza for breakfast, or the missionary position.
From his broken English that sounds like it was learned listening to The Goon Show with a bad signal to kissing every middle American he meets to releasing chickens on a crowded subway, Borat is the socially backward man child whose naïve, unfiltered declarations concerning western life are consistently funny, outlandish and occasionally sincere.
This film transcended the mockumentary genre and dissolved into everyday life. Still, ten years on, he inspires stag do outfits and there isn’t a person reading this who hasn’t done a bad impersonation of him at some point.
That and it has the funniest fight scene in the history of filmmaking; it’s like watching a walrus fight a weasel. See, Borat does depict the gullibility and stupidity of the everyday American, but he also presents the amazing tolerance they have towards an outsider, their willingness to help, educate and care for their fellow man; despite how much he insults your wife or talks about poo.