As usually is the case in movies, leave it to a mistake by a filmmaker to better highlight what his strengths are. Sasha Baron Cohen released The Dictator recently and per usual, the movie is an assault on political correctness norms when it comes to American vision of Middle East and itself. The mockumentary, Borat and Bruno, were highly successful in being funny and uncomfortable. They were filled with slightly staged but actual events of Cohen playing offensive characters and interacting with real people. Him playing demonstrably offensive characters and people reacting to the drumbeat of their assumptions allowed for both funny and telling comedy.
On top of the short list of pure comedic filmmakers, Sasha Baron Cohen extended himself by making his third American feature be straight fiction. The result is nowhere near the earlier pedigree. I would argue the majority of the jokes are weaker, but that feels too subjective to list as a criticism. However, this film being fully fictional allows the old jokes to fly more by the waist side because since everything is fully staged (and more placed in a recognizable romantic comedy genre feeling), the jokes just feel typically caricature. Lots of comedy halfheartedly slam America in honest ways, but no comedy had the confrontational spirit of Cohen’s previous efforts to see the full dimensional spirit of joke insulting the intended target and getting their reaction to help the comedy. The movies were well done representations of our nerve system. The straight fictional take feels like leftover jokes. The jokes need a better structure surrounding it to be sincere.
One technical defense of the movie is that since it would be harder to make the interactions of a fictional dictator believable with average Americans, the film had to go this route to even tell the story. Maybe, but most Americans, when interviewed about everyday global facts, get many wrong. Is it so hard to find some Americans who could believe (if given a buyable premise), that a dictator from a country was visiting the UN and was making a tour of regional America round New York? Likelihood is idea allows for less potential in comedic situations and filmmakers went with their route since the methods of storytelling were much greater. Problem is the result is lukewarm. Hopefully Sasha Baron Cohen does better next time.
Film Splatter 