Sacha Baron Cohen--love him or hate him. Jack and I love him, the outrageous envelope-pushing funnyman, whose faux bio-pic about an oppressive middle eastern ruler, General Aladeen, set adrift in Brooklyn will have you roaring with laughter or running for the exits. Last seen in these pages in Martin Scorsese's Hugo, Cohen's own projects have, up to now, been faux documentaries. Larry Charles (directed Cohen's Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006) and Brüno, as well as Bill Maher's Religulous, wrote and produced quite a few episodes of Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm, and wrote/produced/story edited on Seinfeld, Mad About You, Entourage, and the variety series The Arsenio Hall Show and Fridays) said in an interview that it was nice working from a script this time instead of having to escape in a car after each scene. Cohen shares writing credits with three alumni (writing and/or producing and/or directing) of Seinfeld and Curb: Alec Berg (also story editor for an 80s fave series of mine Inside Herman's Head), David Mandel (also Saturday Night Live), and Jeff Schaffer (also co-wrote Brüno).
Over 100 actors, some uncredited, are listed on imdb, including Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton from news footage. Most noteworthy are Ben Kingsley (most recently in Hugo) as Aladeen's advisor and Anna Faris (I haven't seen much of her work, including the Scary Movie series, Just Friends (2005), nor The House Bunny (2008), but I did like her in her short series arc as herself in Entourage in 2007) as the sprightly, naive free spirit who befriends him at her health food store. Cameos include Aasif Mandvi, Megan Fox, Kevin Corrigan, Fred Armisen, Chris Elliott, J.B. Smoove, Kathryn Hahn, and more.
Sight gags and great lines abound, plus Cohen's usual anti-Semitic, homophobic, and sexist humor (like I said, you either love him or hate him). The comely "Virgin Guard," unsmiling, curvy women in army uniforms with short skirts and heels, accompanied Cohen to the Oscars in February, when he arrived in character as Aladeen and pretended to spill Kim Jong-Il's ashes on Ryan Seacrest. Speaking of anti-Semitic, in at least one scene, when Aladeen is supposed to speaking Arabic, it's really Hebrew.
Lawrence Sher's (profiled in The Big Year) cinematography is better than it has to be--a silly comedy doesn't need gorgeous shots, but this one has them.
Now a few word about Sacha's brother, Erran Baron Cohen, who has composed the scores for all of Sacha's movies and some of Da Ali Show episodes. I remember hearing on NPR that Sacha asked Erran at the very last minute to compose a score (I think it was Borat) and they worked together for a couple of days without sleep to meet the deadline. Erran already liked the middle eastern musical genre (that would include Israel) as featured in his band Zohar, which fit perfectly in the Borat score as well as The Infidel, not a Cohen joint. The soundtrack for The Dictator also has such middle eastern-style remakes of Let's Get It On, Everybody Hurts, and 9 to 5. You can listen to more from The Dictator on youtube here, and follow along to others with the same picture, and then there's Erran's own site with some more songs. If you're interested in the Baron Cohens' family history, read this long and interesting article from 2010.
Some extra footage is at the beginning of the credits and Jack and I waited patiently, as usual, for a final bonus. There isn't one but it's worth it to stay in your seat until the end to hear more of the music, including the catchy Aladeen MotherF***ers.
Oh, and watch for the use of Rule #3.
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