All Hail Ali G

I'm putting this in movie reviews because the best acting I've seen all year is by Sacha Baron Cohen, the actor who plays the characters Ali G, Borat and Bruno on Da Ali G Show for HBO.

The first two seasons are out on DVD and I''ve just gotten around to watching them.

This man is fucking brilliant.

I know, I know, I'm behind the times. He's a big star already, everyone loves him, blah blah blah, but I've just discovered him and I'm awestruck. I'm gonna go so far as to say that Da Ali G Show is the most important entertainment I've seen all year.

He blows our society to bits. He uncovers a moral hole in this country and exposes things that are so painful and disturbing that all you can do is howl in laughter. He hits hard. I watch it and my mouth falls to the floor in disbelief.

He gets an entire room of ordinary, middle Americans in a country-western bar to sing an anti-Semitic song about killing Jews while they clap along and laugh and hoot and holler and I truly don't believe they understand what the fuck they are singing. The subtext seems to be, Americans aren't racist, they're just fucking stupid. Which is scarier? Racist people or people too stupid to know racism when it slaps them in the face?

He then plays a gay character and in some scenes convinces other "fabulous" gay people to lie and change stories so that they too can seem even more fabulous on camera. He says to one fabulous asshole stylist to the stars to pick who is in and who''s out this year by telling the stylist to say,"Should they stay in the ghetto or off to Auschwitz." An "in celeb" gets to stay in the ghetto but an "out celeb" gets shipped to Auschwitz.

For example:

Bruno: Ricky Martin? Stay in the ghetto or off to Auschwitz?

Stlyist: Auschwitz.

Another subtext seems to be that Americans are sheep and all you need to herd them is a microphone and a camera.

He then visits pompous celebrities like Newt Gingrich, Andy Rooney and that horrible James Lipton from the Actors Studio and exposes them for the desperate media whores they are.

Why does Andy Rooney even agree to be interviewed in the first place? He gets plenty of airtime every Sunday night in front of millions of people.

This is important stuff AND on top of all that, Sacha Baron Cohen is an amazing actor. I'm rarely blown away by acting, but this guy is acting on so many levels. The characters he has created are over-the-top yet completely real. Totally unique and bizarre and yet totally human. It''s an amazing feat.

I remember the first time I saw a Charlie Chaplin movie and I was blown away by his physical flexibility and the combination of silly clowning and profound pathos. Seeing Chaplin for the first time was a revelation and I felt that feeling again while watching Da Ali G show. A unique, startling, hilarious and razor-sharp actor lives among us and his name is Sacha Baron Cohen aka Ali G.

Respekt.

Note: I'm uploading two clips on my Web site so you can see him in action. I hope i don't get sued, but you must see him in action. I'll even loan you my DVDs. Go to RonnieLarsen.com Movies