Review: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

Image courtesy of Amazon Studios.

If there were ever a time for a "Borat" sequel, now is it. Sure enough, comedic daredevil madman Sacha Baron Cohen made a sequel to his uproarious 2006 hit on the sly during the coronavirus, and it couldn't have come at a better time.

At the film's beginning, we learn that Borat has been a prisoner in a work camp during the years since the previous film, with which he embarrassed his home nation of Kazakhstan. But he is let out by the nation's president for the purpose of taking another trip to the United States, where he is to ingratiate himself to Donald Trump's inner circle because Kazakhstan's president is envious that other dictators around the world are getting love from the U.S. president - and he isn't.

Borat is to take a prize monkey - known as the nation's top entertainer - and present it as a gift to Mike Pence, but upon arriving in the United States, Borat realizes that his estranged teenage daughter, Tutar (Irina Nowak), has snuck into the crate and the monkey is now dead. Borat then devises a plan to offer up his daughter as a gift to Pence, whom he describes as the United States' "number-one ladies man" since it is well known that Pence cannot be left alone with another woman without his wife present.

"Borat Subsequent Moviefilm" has its share of funny - and outrageous - moments. It's not quite as funny or original as the 2006 film, which was a shockingly hilarious sleeper. The first half of the sequel focuses more on shock value gags - a fertility dance at a southern cotillion, for example - but once it sets its sights on U.S. politics and our current national culture, it hits many of its marks.

Similar to the sketch comedy character and the previous film, one of the most amazing things Cohen is able to do is to get so-called ordinary Americans to make stunningly horrific proclamations or treat awful behavior as normal. For example, he asks a woman at a southern clothing store what the best outfit is for a "racist family," and she calmly gives him some suggestions.

During another, he gets a breast implant doctor to hit on his supposedly underage daughter, and during a visit to a southern clinic, he leads the doctor there on to believe that his daughter has been impregnated by her father, to which the doctor tells him that he wouldn't consider aborting it because regardless of how the baby ended up in the girl's belly, it's "God's plan." During a visit to a bakery, he gets a woman to cheerfully agree to write "The Jews won't replace us" on a cake he's buying.

The two most outrageous and risky gags involve a trip to an anti-COVID-19-shutdown rally and a now legendary meet-up with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The former takes place after Borat has spent a few nights living with two QAnon members, who believe the Clintons drink the blood of newborns. He attends the rally, where gun toting, confederate flag waving racists cheer him on while he pretends to be a country singer on stage, belting out a song that includes horrific imagery of chopping up journalists "like the Saudis do," and convincing the crowd to sing along.

Although Borat sort of confronts Pence at a CPAC conference early in the film, it's the Giuliani meeting that is the most jaw dropping. Tutar, who has become a journalist by the end of the picture, interviews Giuliani in a hotel room and her ingratiating behavior prompts him to follow her into a bedroom, where he proceeds to stick his hand down his pants while reclined on a bed - tucking in his shirt, sure. 

The film's finale finds the most outright call to action I've seen in Cohen's work during an event he and his daughter are covering as journalists. It pokes fun at the United States' aversion to scientists and includes a surprising turn in the way Borat and his village view women.

"Borat Subsequent Moviefilm" is often fairly funny - especially during its second half - even if it doesn't quite live up to the first picture. Cohen deserves credit not only for the great lengths and great dangers he goes to to get a laugh, but also how he was able to make this film during the coronavirus and land heavy blows against something - the Trump administration - that has already been the butt of so many jokes, and make it feel fresh. It's often not for the feint of heart - but then, again neither is ordinary life these days.