Borat is on this list for much the same reason The Descent is: both accomplish something cinematically that is really, really hard to do and both pull it off in smashing style. The Descent is that rarest of rarities, a genuinely scary horror movie, and Borat is another giant panda in the Chinese highlands of cinema, a hilarious comedy.
I was stunned by the number of Borat reviews that spent most of their length debating the degree to which the movie was or was not an effective satire of American culture, or debating whether or not Sasha Baron Cohen was ethical in his approach, after having conceded in their opening paragraph that it was the funniest goddamn movie the reviewer had ever seen. How the hell can a film reviewer, who sees practically every film released during a given year, which means seeing every supposed comedy completely free of laughter released during a given year, gloss over the fact that Borat achieves comedic heights that EVERY SINGLE OTHER COMEDY FILM RELEASED THAT YEAR DIDN'T COME CLOSE TO ACHIEVING! There were some pretty good comedies released in 2006: Talladega Nights was funny, if not Anchorman-funny, and Idiocracy is both funny and unambigiously satirical, but in their combined run-times, they provoke fewer laughs than Borat does before Borat leaves for U S and A.
I don't need to go over what's funny about Borat. You've seen it, you laughed your asses off. My only point is that a well-sustained comedy is nearly impossible to pull off, and that by doing so, Borat deserves not only more "Year's Best" list mentions, but some fucking Oscar consideration.
Score: 9.3
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