Director:

Sally Aitken

Hosts:

Aubrey Arnason
Karen Holness
Angela Case

The Blonde Mystique examines the way our post-modern society is affected by this phenomenon—that blonde is much more than a hair color. Using a variety of sources from historical figures, to modern day professors and modern women, The Blonde Mystique begins to demystify the perks and plight of the fair-haired.

We are presented with three hosts, who are all actors in Vancouver, British Columbia. Two are natural brunettes, and one is a natural blonde (who, of course, highlights her hair). As they begin to unearth the history of blonde hair they become increasingly aware of the social dynamics in their lives, and discover how great an effect hair color has on how they are perceived as human beings. Some of the results and statistics uncovered are quite shocking. We are aware of the inequalities between men and women in the workplace, but the subject of blonde versus brunettes is generally untapped, until now.

The film is documentary meets reality TV when the women set out on a mission to put blonde stereotypes to the test. They perform various social experiments to see whether or not people respond differently to the blonde or the brunettes. The results (watch on Sunday night to find out) are surprising. While this experiment is quite revealing, they don’t stop there. The women then change hair colors to experience the same events from the opposite perspective.

When asked about the experience of going from being a natural blonde to a brunette, Aubrey Arnason, one of the film’s stars replied: “I had not given it much thought because it is my natural hair color but I do value having blonde hair more now that I went without, I guess you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. This sounds silly for a hair color, but it is kind of true for me. I didn’t realize how much it affects the people around me, and their behavior.”

The Blonde Mystique puts age-old stereotypes to the test: Do blondes get more attention? Are they less intelligent than brunettes? Do they really have more fun? The most interesting opinions provided in the film are those of the contributing professors, who have studied and written about the topic in great depth. While they are simply filmed as talking heads, what they have to say is poignant enough to have carried the entire piece on it’s own. The actors are very personable and relatable, but they ultimately make this piece fairly pedestrian, compared to the depth the topic offers. The film aims to be quite visually interesting, but ends up spending more time than it needs to on novelty that doesn’t add very much. The experts, the history and the statistics speak volumes on their own. The topic is fascinating from an anthropologic standpoint. As we inhabit a society where over 50% of women color their hair, The Blonde Mystique is definitely socially relevant.

The Blonde Mystique airs tonight at 7:00 pm ET/PT on W Network.

Director:

Larry Charles

Cast:

Sacha Baron Cohen….. Borat
Kenneth Davitian…… Azamat Bagatov
Pamela Anderson……. Herself

Even though Borat will not be released for another six weeks, through a myspace.com promotion the movie was shown as a free screening in major cities across the nation earlier this week. Since it hasn’t been released wide I will keep plot summary to a minimum, so this review will be a preview/review. Borat is officially being released on November 3rd, 2006.

For anyone not familiar with Borat, he is a character played by Sacha Cohen where he pretends to be from the country of Kazakhstan. As Borat, he interviews people and generally makes completely inappropriate comments about women, jews, homosexuals, gypsies, and any other minority that he comes across in his travels. But since he makes his comments because he is “ignorant” (being from Kazakhstan after all) it is a different type and style of humor then a stand-up comic making the same jokes about the same groups of people. He has made a few appearances on American TV but in general he has slid under the radar in the States. Needless to say, after this movie that will no longer be the case.

Like his TV show, the main story in Borat is that he has been asked by the Government of Kazakhstan to go to America to learn about different American customs. The entire movie is shot in documentary fashion as Borat interacts with Americans on the street as well as in sit-down interviews with politicians, small interest groups, and other official settings. Borat starts in New York and travels across the country, stopping in various cities along the way and getting into trouble almost everywhere he goes. For example, a meeting with a feminist group gets uncomfortable when Borat implies (by implies I mean bluntly states) that women are not in any way equal to men. At times it is difficult to tell what reactions are genuine and which are rehearsed, but it is a line that Borat dances well as the movie comes across as a legitimate documentary most of the time.

A raunchy comedy in every sense of the word, I am surprised that Borat only got an R rating. Borat doesn’t pull any punches, as the movie viciously and hilariously insults Jews and women (the two main targets throughout the movie) to the point that it was surprising that Borat made it through the movie unscathed. Non-stop laughs from start to finish, Borat went over the line on more then one occasion (especially on one occasion…) but since people were laughing so hard they were having trouble staying in their seats it would be hard to look at that as a negative. The packed theater of 290 people at the screening were louder and laughed harder then I have ever witnessed, even moreso then the popular comedies The 40 Year Old Virgin and Freddy vs. Jason. The story is expectedly weak, but the weak story does not take away from the movie as Borat is not about the journey itself, but making the journey as amusing as possible.

InsidePulse’s Ratings for Borat
CATEGORY	RATING(OUT OF 10)
STORY	4
ACTING	7
ORIGINALITY	10
LOOK/FEEL	8
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE	9
OVERALL	8