BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM Review
The eternally damned year of 2020 took more than it offered, but if there was one thing it gave us starving media masses, it was the return of everyone’s favorite intrepid foreign reporter Borat Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen) clawing his way from the depths of 2006 pop culture into these new, volatile modern times. While I still have yet to see the first entry (though I am eternally grateful for hearing everyone’s interpolation of Borat’s famed exclamation of “My Wife!!” throughout the months following the first film’s release), hearing news of the return of any Baron Cohen caricature was always welcome to my ears as I’ve found the performer adept at revealing the dirty (and profoundly stupid) side of our American society through even stupider means and characters. As it goes with any long distanced sequel (14 years), any viewer wouldn’t be blamed for having hesitations towards BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM as one would find it hard to see Baron Cohen and his caricature keeping in touch with the societal and political changes that have left us in this cursed year of 2020. But don’t worry my fair reader, Baron Cohen has more than a firm pulse on America’s shenanigans and mindset (for better or worse).
Through the usual methods of feigning comedic naivety and casual racism through the bumbling title character, first-time feature director Jason Woliner and a farmhouse of writers (including Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer, Peter Baynham, Erica Rivinoja, Dan Mazer, Jena Friedman, Lee Kern and *deep breath* Nina Pedrad) decide to get a little more personal with Borat. Indeed, as the film starts we find Borat toiling in a gulag after bringing great shame to the country of Kazakhstan after the release of his first film BORAT. However, as Borat notes with excitement, the recent election of Donald Trump to the American presidency has given the country of Kazakhstan (and Borat) a chance at redemption. Looking to make amends, the Kazakhstanian government assigns Borat to bring to the great “US and A” and to Vice President, noted ladies’ man Mike Pence, the country’s famed filmmaker Johnny The Monkey as a gift (or bribe). With the only other choice being death, Borat happily agrees to the mission and once again sets off to the great states of America with his daughter Tutar (Maria Bakalova) in tow.
From there, the film follows Borat on another adventure into the heart of America and its people, with a few twists thrown in here and there. One of which being that almost everyone notices the iconoclastic Borat immediately causing him to don various costumes and identities throughout as he gets himself involved with various events (which are mostly conservative leaning) and people. As in the first film, Baron Cohen and now Bakalova, who holds her own as Borat’s aspirational daughter, find most of the humor in attending American events (such as a debutante ball or a March For Our Rights rally) and mingling with very American citizens (ranging from two suspicious conservative roommates to Rudy Giuliani) and reacting with naive foreign excitement and befuddlement. With each passing exchange, Baron Cohen and co. reveal things we already know about America: there are good people, there are dumb people, there are bad people and then there are a mix of all of those in one way or another but in the end, nothing new or truly interesting is revealed. Sure, you get some funny moments such as a scene where Borat and Tutra throw a VERY imaginative father-daughter dance at the aforementioned debutante that reveals moments both disgusting and hilarious while also getting genuinely sweet moments such as when the obviously anti-Semitic Borat meets with some truly good-hearted Holocaust survivors but overall, the film struggles to find a firm grasp in its heart or humor. As the film itself notes, finding a way to create genuine and authentic laughs with a well known prank character like Borat in 2020 makes for a tough task, not that Rudy Giuliani doesn’t try his damndest in a standout scene that encapsulates Baron Cohen’s method of comedy that reveals the dark stupidity of some of the country’s more well known figures.
However, the other twist that Baron Cohen and co. inject into this sequel is that previously mentioned speck of heart that slowly comes to fruition throughout the story. While it doesn’t always fit naturally in the film’s loose story, the evolving relationship between Borat and his daughter manages to find some strange kind of cartoonish love for its main character while also giving Bakalova a chance to not only deliver some laughs but some pathos to her literally pent up character. Truly, in the plight of a young girl wanting to become the next Melania Trump (and all that that implies) BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM makes what could have easily been a throwaway plotline into something more meaningful even as the film begins to get more wild as it nears its final third act twist, which is equally stupid, relevant, and audacious.
Overall, this second outing with Borat is far from a bad time but for a film heavily reliant on but-gusting laughs and pranks, it brings little fire in its return. To their credit, director Woliner and his crew do set up some interesting and well thought out scenarios even when their production obviously runs into the COVID-19 obstacles that they deftly weave into their story; however, the simple truth is that most of these scenarios fail to live up to their potential. Indeed, the best jokes in this film are the smaller ones such as the baby figurine of Borat that always brought hearty chuckles to this writer. Nevertheless, for a 14 years later sequel, you could do worse and if one isn’t hip to Baron Cohen’s mode of comedy, BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM will no doubt be a breath of fresh air. It never reaches “VERY NICE!!” status, but rather “Just Fine!!” and in this day and age, a little Borat never harmed anybody (except Rudy Giuliani, maybe).
2.5/5
