Review: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

 Hello! My name a Santiago Brion. I like you. I like movies. It's nice. 

You'd be very wrong that Borat sequel would never happen. But it did! Cohen retired Borat in 2007, saying that his brand of satire had become impossible due to his own fame. Fourteen years later, the follow-up was shot during the pandemic. Its early scenes showed Borat being unable to work, because everybody recognized him, so he goes around in disguises.

Borat Sagdiyev's latest misadventure was filled with more risqué jokes. He spends his remaining years in prison for his shenanigans in the previous film and is blamed for Kazakhstan's political and financial collapse. He's given a mission that will pardon him if it succeeds. Let's just say that it involves a monkey being delivered to Mike Pence, when that goes awry, he offers his 15-year-old daughter, Tutar to him. She has a lot to learn about life, due to the fact that she was raised in captivity on Borat's farm. Yeah, it sounds horrible, but it's normal in Kazakhstan to have the daughters be chained up on a farm. Anyway, since that she knows nothing about America, not only does she learn about American culture, she learns about men, sex and everything else, because aren't allowed to read, learn, drive or do anything else in Kazakhstan. Her only treasured thing in the world is a very odd and obscene children's book involving a woman's private parts with teeth, if touched, it swallows the woman's whole body. 

Director Jason Woliner puts a couple of layers in its plot, but the gags, characterizations and cultural observations are still its focal point and staying focused on Borat's core mission and positioning him as a narcissistic fool whose flaws mirror his targets. 

Both movies' heart is the belief that America is The Greatest Nation in the World, but it has more in the common with foreign countries. Kazakhstan runs on fear and corruption. The culture's importance of morality and ethics are contradicted by their embrace of cruelty and depravity. In other words, both countries are built on institutionalized corruption. With Donald Trump as President of the United States, America had become even more controversial.

It's funniest moments are also its shocking moments. The treatment of women and pedophilia in the movie are no laughing matter, but that doesn't make the cringy mockumentary a laugh riot. When Borat does a fax exchange with the Kazakh government, the FedEx employee doesn't even bat an eye. At a plastic surgery clinic, the surgeon doesn't even question Borat bringing Tutar to get breast implants(even though she's too young!)to be prepared for Rudy Giuliani. Oh yeah, forgot to mention. Borat sneaked into the Republican National Convention by dressing in a KKK robe and then dressing up as our disgraced commander in chief to give Tutar to Pence and let's just say that it didn't really go as planned. 

The movie's shocking moment is when Tutar finally meets Giuliani and they both participate in a TV interview in a hotel suite and they both go into the bedroom and both are interrupted by Borat in disguise saying "She's 15. She's too young for you." In one hilarious scene, Borat buys a Tutar a cupcake with a baby on it, but as she chows down on the cupcake, she swallows the baby and takes her to a doctor. See where I'm going with this? Borat then tells the pastor that her daughter has a baby inside of her, it hurts and he wants to get rid of it. It's actually soo outrageously funny.

While being estranged from Tutar, Borat befriends two Trump supporters and they all agree that Democrats are "demons" and the Clintons are "evil" and yet they help Borat to deliver his daughter to Rudy. When Borat performs a song at a Trump rally, the audience sings along to the lyrics about how Covid is "The Wuhan Flu" and the US should chop up journalists "like the Saudis do." This was filmed in June 2020 and Cohen received death threats and it's amazing how he made it out of there alive. 

As you've watched Borat 2, the humor is provocative, filthy and offensive. Is Sacha Baron Cohen wallowing in American dysfunction or is he unintentionally creating YouTube clips and memes? They're common conundrums faced by comics. Some get swallowed up by it, to the point where they become advertisements for the thing that they've dismantled. It's not the case here, tho. 

On top of the movie's political aspects, it's goofy and surreal by concentrating on Borat's relationship with his daughter. Think Paper Moon, but with sketch-comics. It's rare that a mockumentary would have a heartwarming story but Borat 2 pulls it off perfectly. Kudos to Maria Bakalova's performance, I see that she's already a star on the rise.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to comment your thoughts below.

Chenquhie