Hip-hop journalist Ali G returns after 20 years to make a documentary with real people. Cameras follow him for over a year as he takes classes, walks the streets, and appears on shows, often with his pregnant girlfriend.
It’s been almost 20 years since Sacha Baron Cohen last properly appeared as Ali G, and with the character having become such a recognisable part of popular culture, I was sceptical about whether bringing him back would work in 2026. ‘Ali G: Who Iz I?’ sees the wannabe gangster from Staines emerge from two decades of doing very little to discover that his long-term girlfriend Julie (Morgana Robinson) is heavily pregnant, prompting him to head to America in the hope of reviving his career and making some money. I’ve always been a big fan of Baron Cohen’s work, even when it hasn’t quite reached the heights of his earlier efforts, so I’m probably exactly the sort of person this film is aimed at. I did enjoy it, although some of the concerns about the character feeling dated are certainly justified!
The film combines scripted comedy with the sort of improvised encounters with unsuspecting members of the public that made Baron Cohen famous, although the fictional storyline connecting everything together is pretty flimsy. Some of the supposedly unscripted sequences also stretch credibility a little, and it’s difficult not to wonder just how much the participants know about what’s going on. Perhaps the biggest issue is that Ali G is simply too famous now to catch out the sort of prominent politicians and public figures that Baron Cohen managed to embarrass in the past. It speaks volumes that many of the people featured here are considerably lower-profile than those in his earlier work, although there are a couple of notable exceptions (never seems to be a shortage of American politicians willing to debase themselves!). That said, I did laugh quite a lot, particularly when Baron Cohen manages to draw out the prejudices and absurd beliefs of the people he’s interacting with, something he’s always been remarkably good at.
There’s an argument that ‘Ali G: Who Iz I?’ might have worked better as a television miniseries, allowing the improvised material to stand on its own without the need for an increasingly ridiculous fictional story to hold everything together. It’s also had a rather strange release, with Amazon giving it a heavily restricted theatrical window before moving it almost immediately onto Prime Video. The film was effectively dumped onto streaming, which is a shame given that it actually performed reasonably well at the UK box office, taking around £1.3 million over its opening weekend despite the limited release. I’m not sure what Amazon expected it to achieve in those circumstances, particularly when audiences knew they’d be able to watch it at home just a few days later.
Ultimately, the law of diminishing returns certainly applies here, and ‘Ali G: Who Iz I?’ isn’t remotely close to the high bar Baron Cohen set with his earlier work featuring the character, or other characters such as Borat. Some of the humour feels rather tired, and the scripted material is considerably less successful than the encounters with real people (if they are ‘real’), but there’s still plenty that made me laugh. More importantly, Baron Cohen does find some relevance for Ali G in today’s increasingly polarised world, where prejudice, political extremism and people’s willingness to believe almost anything provide him with no shortage of material. It’s a mixed return for a character whose best days are behind him, but if you have generally enjoyed Baron Cohen’s particular brand of comedy, there’s plenty here to enjoy!
Rating: 3/5
Directed By: Sacha Baron Cohen
Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen and Morgana Robinson
