Heading into Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, there was an absence of expectation. Given how much the world has changed since Borat first arrived on screens in 2006, that was probably the best attitude to take. After all, the man behind the mustache, Sacha Baron Cohen, has become a household name and recognizable the globe over. How on earth could he achieve that “gotcha” element that was such an enormous part of Borat’s success the first time around?
Never count Cohen out. Not that we did. But what he achieves in Borat 2 (airing on Amazon Prime October 23) illustrates that the British comic actor is supremely intelligent, above all else. Of course, he is insanely hilarious… and the situational comedy that develops in his follow-up 14 years in the making is just as spontaneously sensational as it was the first time—if not exponentially more pointed. Well, we are living in extraordinary times. There is a tyrant aspirator in the White House, a pandemic sweeping the country that a swath of our populous has decided is not worth worrying about and corruption and insider political collusion by a party looking to put pollical affiliation over the nation.
Borat arrives and exposes all of it in a succinct, piercing indictment of America 2020. Yet, like the first film back in Bush II’s second term after illegally starting a war that killed 4,000 heroes, there is a hope for the future. It lies in our ability to wrestle the power of our country from the hands of those who seek to keep it from us. In fact, no spoilers here, but let’s just say that one of the final words seen in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is “VOTE.”
You don’t need to know the why, but Borat arrives in America, ready to put up a mirror to our society and what comes back at us is usually not that pretty—even if it does produce a litany of laughs. Whereas last time the spotlight shone on the administration of Bush-Cheney, this time we’re looking at the Trump-Pence White House and the America that has responded to their divisiveness, racism, and ethnocentrism. He seeks to bring a gift to someone close to President Trump, specifically Vice President Mike Pence. When his original monkey doesn’t fare so well on the trip to America, he is left with one choice—his stowaway daughter (played by sure to be breakout star Irina Novak).
There’s an urgency to Borat 2 that comes through that was not as prevalent the last time around. Perhaps the encroaching pandemic, the election that is merely months away (when the film was filmed), or perhaps it’s as simple as after four years of Trump, the nation is scarred beyond recognition. When Borat asks two men who took him in during a particularly hilarious part of the film, the reply is hardly surprising. “What’s more dangerous to America, Covid or Democrats?” Borat asks. “Democrats,” they reply without hesitation or flinching.
Cohen has some help this time out, and it’s not his producer—even though the reveal of his fate is side-splittingly funny. Borat learns that he has a daughter. Novak finds her way into her father’s American adventure and as such, there’s ever-building parental compassion from the title character that is shockingly charming and frankly, adorable. Yeah, adorable was the word used to describe a Borat movie!
Her presence allows Cohen to create a flawed misogynistic character that exposes America’s own issues with that subject, while simultaneously providing an avenue for the redemption of a character that has been hardened in an old patriarchal system in his native country. He famously brought that to America in 2006 and does so again in 2020—four years after that country rejected its first major-party female candidate for president.
The thing about a Borat movie is it is inherently stressful. This is all on the fly filmmaking and as such, it could blow up in Cohen’s face at any given time. Instead, the improv comedy expert rolls with the punches, and the comic mayhem is exponentially more uproarious. Novak shares his talent and this arena and the two of them are absolute peas in a comedic pod. As he crosses America from Texas through the heartland and up to a Washington state for an anti-mask, pro-Trump rally in June that goes off the rails in the best of ways, the actor and his screen alter-ego don disguises (to avoid being noticed). Yet, the sentiment he spews is the same and it does a sensational job of pointing out America’s faults, fancies (a debutante ball where Novak makes her “debut” as a changed woman!), and yes, it’s potential for being whole once again.
There’s also the anti-Semitic part of the Borat world. As he stated in the first movie, his country’s participation in the German extermination of the Jews is celebrated. He lands in America in 2020 with that same sentiment and let’s just say, one of the most touching (and yes, hilarious) scenes involves Borat visiting a Jewish temple when he is in utter despair and meets a couple of older Jewish ladies, one who is a survivor of the Holocaust. It all results in a touching moment, but it also serves as a catapult into the third act of this fantastic farce.
The news has been aflutter about a scene in the Borat Subsequent Moviefilm that involves President Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and a 15-year-old girl. That teenager is Borat’s daughter and again, no spoilers here, but the scene is as cringeworthy as advertised. It also doesn’t jive with the former mayor of New York’s view of what happened.
It all adds up to one explosive conclusion that Cohen could never have anticipated when he first dreamed of donning the mustache and being in the beige suit once again. Any film is a culmination of everything that has come before as the narrative makes its race towards the finish line.
For Borat 2, it is beyond satisfying, spit-out your drink hilarious, touching, heartwarming, and leaves us with the craziest of thoughts.
America needs Borat. Borat needs America. Lest the two ever separate—even if it takes 14 years to reunite us.
Grade: A-