OnScreen Review: "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm"
Ken Jones, Chief Film Critic
It is hard to believe that it has really been 14 years since Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan came out. I have not revisited it in quite some time, but much of the movie still feels pretty fresh in my mind and it is VERY NICE! Ok, now that’s we’ve gotten the obvious joke out of the way, Sacha Baron Cohen is back with a sequel to his hit mockumentary, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. It is no surprise that Baron Cohen is still able to shock with his characters, the uncomfortable situations he puts people into, and his willingness to let people say the cringiest things.
Nearly a decade and a half after the original moviefilm, Borat is back in the once glorious nation of Kazakhstan, but there was significant fallout in the wake of the previous movie. It made Kazakhstan a laughingstock and earned Borat a trip to the gulags. Facing the prospect of execution, Borat is given a chance to save his life and restore the good name of his country by delivering Johnny the Monkey to American Vice President Mike Pence. Of course, things go horribly and Borat, with his daughter Tutar (Maria Bakalova) in tow, must try to fix the situation. Along the way, he forms a bond with his previously estranged daughter.
The opening of the film features a clever subversion of the original film when Borat announces to his village that he is going to America and they all cheer him and wish him well. He makes the same proclamation this time, but after his last film disgraced the country, he gets a far different reaction. It’s a clever callback and one of the most genuinely funny moments in the movie that doesn’t involve someone utterly humiliating themselves.
Borat is such a popular figure that it is nearly impossible for Baron Cohen to bring the character back without some trickery. Early on in his return to America, he is walking down the street and random people are yelling, “Hey, Borat!” to him. It is not enough for Baron Cohen to be in a Borat disguise, Borat himself must be disguised now, which is such a weird, meta mockumentary first. Disguising his most popular creation in further disguises, Baron Cohen goes around America once again, with social media influencers, QAnon conspiracy theorists, and political figures as his targets.
Of course, one of the purposes of Borat is really to be a vessel for Baron Cohen to bring to the surface the unspoken and hidden prejudices of the people he encounters. This was fresh and shocking in 2006 when Borat was released. Now, it is still powerful, but less fresh and shocking. This is partly because a sequel can hardly ever match the original, but mainly because what used to be unspoken and hidden in America is much more out in the open now than it was fourteen years ago. People are proud of their ignorance and their anti-intellectual positions. How many encounters like these have people seen on The Daily Show or The Colbert Report or any other late-night talk show over the last fourteen years?
Of course, major attention is being paid to a scene involving Rudy Giuliani, who is caught in a compromising position with Tutar, posing as a foreign reporter interviewing him in a hotel room. Much has been made of Rudy putting his hand down his pants while laying down the bed after Tutar. As fallen and disgraced as the former “America’s Mayor” may have become in subservience to the Orange Menace in the White House at this time, it is pretty clear that he was just tucking in his shirt and not doing anything inappropriate when Borat burst into the hotel room to stop him. However, we do not know where things may have gone. Why be interviewed in a hotel room? Why go into the bedroom in the first place? None of it is a good look for the man who is the personal lawyer for the president, and if can be duped by Sacha Baron Cohen for a mockumentary, how susceptible is he to foreign manipulation? But I digress.
If Borat Subsequent Moviefilm were just a rehash of the original comedy, that would be a disappointment. Thankfully, new life ins injected in the form of his daughter Tutar, and the performance by Maria Bakalova. An unknown Bulgarian actress, this is one of the more impressive pbreakthrough performances in recent memory, matching Baron Cohen scene for scene in terms of absurdity and earning laughs. Even in a normal year, she might garner award consideration, but in a year in which the movie industry has been decimated by Covid, I suspect her standout performance will catch several nominations.
It is also worth pointing out that for all of the bad that Borat seems to coax out of some people, it’s worth pointing out that there are still good people out there that give you hope for humanity and hope for this country, and in this case it is Jeanise Jones, a babysitter who Borat leaves his daughter with while he tries to go meet Mike Pence. Borat is a character that often exposes the lack of character in the people he meets. Not so with Jeanise; she is a bright spot of humanity, decency, and kindness in this mockumentary. Her character shines through.
There is an expression, often attributed to Mark Twain, that comedy is tragedy plus time. Things become funnier the further removed we are from them. I found myself thinking of this quote after having seen the return of Sacha Baron Cohen’s iconic, titular character in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, the sequel to his 2006 hit, Borat. The original comedy was subversive and provocative and shined a light on the underbelly of what passed for American patriotism at the time. In 2020, there is no need for a light to be shone, everything is pretty much out in the open right now. This sequel is just as edgy and racy as the original, but America is edgier and more on edge than it was when the original was made. If there is ever a third Borat movie, it is almost scary to think about what the national condition could be then.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
(Borat Subsequent MovieFilm is streaming on Amazon Prime)