The Dictator

Funny, but didn’t blow my mind. I think the expectation is that Cohen will always be more outrageous than last time, so there’s nowhere for him to really go. I’m not always fond of comedians fucking with real people, even though it’s funny sometimes in Borat, so it’s a nice change of pace to see Cohen juxtaposed with an equally funny fictitious counterpart – Anna Feris. Departing from her klutzy blonde bombshell caricature that she’s mastered, she plays the tolerant, so-liberal-she’s-crazy lefty with wide-eyed perfection. Without her, Cohen’s dictator would just be an unlikeable maniac, but she sees the potential for good in anybody, a key strength/weakness of the bleeding-heart lib she embodies. The whole movie seems to be geared toward one big speech in which Cohen’s reformed dictator unloads about the hypocrisies of American democracy. It’s more political than most movies, which is good, but the comedic build up to this is a mixed bag, especially the scenes without Feris.