U.K. campaign urges cinemas to snub Sacha Baron Cohen’s Ali G revival

A British media-monitoring group is pushing cinema chains around the world to refuse to screen “Ali G: Who Iz I?,” the mockumentary reviving Sacha Baron Cohen’s Ali G character, arguing the trailer resurrects a “racist caricature” of Black British culture, Variety reported Friday.

The campaign, run by NewsCord, lets supporters send form letters to the booking desks of major chains — including Odeon, Cineworld, Vue and Cinemark — asking them not to book the film, which Amazon MGM Studios plans to release Oct. 23. NewsCord says it has generated more than 36,000 emails since launching the effort this week, according to Variety.

The backlash follows this week’s release of the trailer for the film, in which Ali G — Mr. Baron Cohen’s dim-witted, dreadlocked “rude boy” character — is shown wearing a Rastafarian hat and discussing his plans to be an “absent” father. Critics online have called the character “outdated” and “racist.”

NewsCord’s campaign cites a 2000 Guardian report in which Black British comedians criticized Ali G, including Felix Dexter, who said the character allowed “the liberal middle classes to laugh at black street culture” while retaining their sense of political correctness. Novelist Jeanette Winterson later compared the character to the “Black and White Minstrels.”

British writer and broadcaster Afua Hirsch revived those criticisms this week, writing in a Substack post that although she recognized the character’s satirical intent as a teenager — “I just knew he was mocking us,” she wrote — its humor no longer fits the times, arguing it sexualizes Black women while mocking working-class culture.

But Variety reported that claims the pushback had already scored a win against the film are inaccurate. NewsCord had circulated a reply from Picturehouse Cinemas, which told the group, “We currently do not have any plans to screen this film on its release.” NewsCord and some U.K. outlets characterized that as a booking ban. Variety said the reply was actually the chain’s standard response to any query about a title not yet on its schedule, and that no decision on the film has been made.

Phil Clapp, chief executive of the UK Cinema Association, pushed back on the idea that exhibitors should weigh in on the content itself, telling Variety, “Cinemas are there to engage and entertain the widest possible audience.” He said chains generally decide whether to book a film after it receives a British Board of Film Classification certificate based on likely audience demand rather than acting as content arbiters.

Mr. Baron Cohen appeared to anticipate some blowback when he shared the trailer, quipping that in an era when “a single un-PC joke” can end a career, he’d “play it safe and bring this guy back.”