Borat Subsequent MovieFilm
I don’t know if the world needed another Borat film, but while I don’t like it as much as other people do, I’m kind of glad we have one, if only to show that maybe we didn’t need one. I applaud Sacha Baron Cohen for being able to make this film this year, the year of COVID-19, but again, did we need it? Whether we did or not, I still had a perfectly enjoyable time watching it.
Part of what made 2006’s “Borat” such a time bomb to detonate at that time is that it revealed the silliness of the American Exceptionalism of the Bush era, and what the “American Dream” was, through the lens of a foreign buffoon. In the time of Trump, that’s a little harder to do, and given how recognizable Borat is, it’s much trickier for Baron Cohen to sneak up on his subjects like he did in the original. (He comes across a Halloween costume of himself even.) So now, Borat has a daughter to help him, and honestly, much of the material surrounding Tutar (played by Maria Bakalova) is what you’ll remember most fondly in this one.
We find out in the early moments what has been going on with Borat in the previous 14 years. After he disgraced Kazakhstan through the release of the first film (somewhat accurate, and Kazakhstan was NOT happy with how they were portrayed), Borat was sent to the Gulags, where he has been doing hard labor. Now, he is being given an opportunity to earn his freedom by going back to America, and offering President Trump, through Mike Pence, one of Kazakhstan’s most cherished celebrities, Johnny the Monkey. After a terrible fate befalls Johnny en route, though, Borat must think of another offering. Maybe Tutar, whom dreams of being as elegant as Melania Trump, will do the trick? After all, we know Trump has a thing for young women, even (allegedly) if they’re 15 years old.
The 14 years since “Borat” has not made the character any less of a buffoon. He is still portrayed as a bit of an idiot, who doesn’t understand things like smartphones, and that’s fine, but at a certain point, that grows tired as a character trait. Dating even worse is the character’s antisemitism, which, in 2006, at least was too ridiculous to be taken seriously. Now, we’ve seen “Jews will not replace us,” synagogue shootings, and antisemitic slurs and conspiracy theories come into American culture in troubling ways, so when Borat seems distraught over the idea that the Holocaust never happened, and overjoyed when a Holocaust survivor tells him that yes, it did happen, it doesn’t carry the same absurdist humor it might have otherwise. There’s nothing funny about broad racism played as parody right now, since American life is overrun with genuine racism now. It’s a big whiff for me, though it’s not Baron Cohen’s fault America made his comedy creation less funny.
On the whole, I genuinely enjoyed things in “Borat Subsequent MovieFilm,” largely when it had to do with Tutar, played by Bakalova in an outrageous and hilarious performace. Borat’s racism may not land right now as a source of comedy, but his misogyny does, and it’s because of how well Tutar’s arc has been thought out. The father-daughter aspect isn’t quite on solid footing for me, but Tutar seeing through the lies her father and culture imparted on her is one of the strongest things this movie does. Yes, there are still uncomfortable moments (like a daddy/daughter dance that gets a bit icky), but when they go to a Crisis Pregnancy Center in Texas is hilarious because of the misunderstanding it is built on, as well as when Tutar finds herself in a Republican Women’s meeting rather than getting plastic surgery. The culmination of this journey for Tutar is a now-famous encounter with Rudy Giuliani that is as uncomfortable because of its subject as it is what it’s setting up. The ending of the film is the most solidly satirical jab “Borat Subsequent MovieFilm” makes, but it’s because, for the first time in the entire movie, Baron Cohen’s satire is expertly delivered, and accurately representative of the absurdity of its target. There are not too many other moments like that in this movie; I’m grateful the ending was able to give us one.
