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In theaters Friday: Borat, Santa Claus III: The Escape Claus, Flushed Away

New on DVD: Mission: Impossible III

I’m pretty sure Borat is going to be the funniest movie of the year. In the last few months alone comedian Sacha Baron Cohen—already a superstar in his native England for Ali G and a favorite among HBO households in the U.S.—has skyrocketed into the greater pop culture lexicon. And for whatever reason, his satire of American culture and prejudices debuting during election season seems like perfect timing.

Cohen has been able to take the man-on-street skits pioneered by David Letterman in the ’80s and combine them with the daring character commitment of Peter Sellers and a dash of Andy Kaufman’s clever aloofness, to create a character so loveable and despicable and just plain hilarious. Make no mistake, Cohen is going to be a huge comedy star for the next couple of years at the very least. He just inked a $42.5 million deal with Universal for a film version of his Austrian fashionista character, Bruno, and will star with Johnny Depp in Tim Burton’s music Sweeney Todd.

I’d like to take a minute to mention a little-discussed filmmaker by the name of Hal Ashby. I recently watched his Being There again and Harold and Maude for the first time. These are probably Ashby’s crowning achievements in the director’s chair, but his relatively brief run as a Hollywood heavyweight in the ‘70s and early ‘80s also includes the Robert Towne-penned farce Shampoo and the Jack Nicholson showcase The Last Detail. Ashby has influenced countless writers and directors like Wes Anderson, who continues to populate his films with characters who are either in a state of severe arrested development, are extremely precocious, or both. If you haven’t seen Being There or Harold and Maude, I recommend them both. They work at a slower pace then most movies today, but be patient. It’s worth the wait.

Superman Returns, returns! For me, Superman Returns gets worse and worse the more I think about it. I had mixed feelings right after seeing it last summer, but now months later, I know I’ll never watch it again, which, if you’re keeping score at home, is a feeling that’s pretty damning for a movie. But here we go. Sony has officially pulled the trigger on a sequel, promising more action and a more threatening villain. Um, okay. Can we also get a tighter script that doesn’t borrow every plot point from Richard Donner’s original and a Lois Lane that is remotely likable?

Here’s a hallelujah chorus for a review of Factory Girl, the Edie Sedgwick biopic out Dec. 29. I’m usually pretty wary of advance reviews that give nothing but unadulterated praise for a movie—there has to be something not-quite-brilliant about it! And that’s what this is. I want to like this movie because of the subject matter. I’ve read Jean Stein and George Plimpton’s tangential oral history American Girl and seen every Andy Warhol documentary I can get my hands on. But despite a decent cast, I’ve always been skeptical of the finished product of Factory Girl, and I’m going to keep my expectations low even after reading this glowing review. What about you? Have you ever intentionally kept your expectations low hoping that would help you enjoy the movie more?

Here’s the teaser trailer for Smokin’ Aces. It looks totally insane and should be lots of fun. Can’t go wrong with Jason Bateman and Jeremy Piven…

And finally, cutesy couple Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe have called it quits after seven years of marriage. The pair, who always looked more like brother and sister to me, bypassed the over-used “irreconcilable differences” shtick in favor of the hot new “cumulative circumstances” line. Happy Halloween everybody.