Directed by Sacha Baron Cohen — Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Peter Baynham, Dan Swimer, Dan Mazer, and Keisha Zollar.
Let’s start here: I am certainly not immune to Sacha Baron Cohen’s type of comedy. The first Borat film remains a mockumentary classic, and the sequel, amusingly subtitled Subsequent Moviefilm, was also quite good and revealing. In 2026, he is, however, enduring something of a cold streak. The Wahlberg-led comedy Balls Up, on Prime Video, was a dud, and Thea Sharrock’s Ladies First, on Netflix, is still one of the least successful narrative feature films of the year, to me. With his third 2026 feature, Ali G: Who Iz I?, Cohen tries to bring one of his famous/infamous 2000s characters back to life and interrogate his behavior in a mockumentary-style comedy that aims for Borat but doesn’t come anywhere close. Bizarrely, on October 28th, only a few days after its theatrical release on October 23rd, it was already dropped on Prime Video. Its short theatrical window isn’t the only surprising thing about it, because I also think this mockumentary shows that Cohen’s once-beloved bit is either getting stale or he just doesn’t know how to elicit the same comedic reactions anymore.
