I find this one surprising. The LA Film Critics Association have named two actors this year as co-Best Actor this year. One was a no brainer. Forest Whitaker for his role in The Last King of Scotland (He won Best Actor for the National Board of Review just a few days ago too), but the surprising one was Sacha Baron Cohen for his role in Borat.
No one get too excited. There is no way in hell SBC will get any sort of Oscar nomination for best actor… nor should he… Borat isn’t a “character” as much as he is a characiture. The brilliance of Borat isn’t in the acting really (although SBC does a great job!) but more in the creation of the character himself and the writing.
Borat also made the laughable AFI top 10 films of 2006 list… which is in another post today.
So what do you think… as good as Borat was… do you think Sacha Baron Cohen deserves to be considered the best male thespian of the year? Not me… but I’d like to know what your thoughts are.
I would say he deserves some credit for his acting. A lot of the film was unscripted and improvised but he had to get it right the first time. For the type of stuff Cohen did, there weren’t opportunities for retakes, he had to get it right the first time, and keep a straight face.
Most over-rated movie of the year. Good, but not great. Especially the more and more crap I read about it.
I gotta agree with, Henrik. Most of the scenes aren’t “written” at all. They are just improvised. Its Cohen going somewhere as Borat and then he has just one shot with everything he does, Its not like in any other film where the actors have 10-50 tries to make the one line of dialoge sound convincing. And John I don’t think that much writing took place, I’m not even sure there is anything written down at all.
shot not short
Entertainment Weekly also named SBC as a long short Oscar nominee.
Because Henrik,
Writing is not just dialog. The creation of the scenes, the concepts for the situations and the Borat dialog and scense structure are all a part of the “writing” of the film.
How the hell do you figure the brilliance is in the writing, when so much of it has to be unscripted and improvised? Obviously he has a general agenda, but he has to stay in character all the while upholding seemingly real conversation with people.
I think he may deserve recognition. His performance withstood the ultimate test.
Another joke of an awards ceremony.
This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. Might as well give it to Andy Dick in “Employee of the Month.”
Dumb.