Actor Sacha Baron Cohen as probably his most well known persona, Borat Sagdiyev, is back for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. The film is as cringeworthy, in a good way, as the first and this time has a more interesting and cohesive narrative thanks to a more partisan and divided American population, a fantastic new co-star in Maria Bakalova as daughter Tutar, and some hilarious, yet on point story bits about the current state of the world.
It’s been more than a decade since the first outing with news journalist Borat Sagdiyev. Unfortunately, during the films interlude, Borat has been laboring away in a work camp as punishment for embarrassing Kazakhstan and leader President Nazarbayev following the first film. Fortunately, he is given a chance to redeem himself by once again returning to America to win the favor of Vice President Mike Pence by gifting him Kazakhstan’s most famous celebrity, Johnny the Monkey, in the hope that President Nazarbayev will join the group of strongman leaders like Russia’s Putin and Brazil’s Borsalino. On his release from internment and before traveling to the States, Borat returns home to find that his sons don’t want him, including Hooeylewis (now Jeffrey Epstein). Though Tutar, his 15 years old daughter and the oldest unmarried woman in all of Kazakhstan, is happy to see her father. From within her cage, she dreams one day becoming the next ‘Melania’ after watching a fake Disney-like cartoon of ‘Melania and Trump’. Her father even promises a cage bigger than Melania’s. (Yes. She lives in a cage and sleeps in a cage at various points in the film.)
Borat realizes very quickly that he needs to go undercover in America, because he has become a well known celebrity after his first outing. He is a known entity on the streets and gets harassed for autographs from passersby. As a consequence, Borat dressed up and in make-up makes more appearances in the film than the titular character himself. Borat even seems to pull off some excellent southern American accents. (Though, this is probably due to Sacha Baron Cohen wanting to avoid giving away his undercover persona.)
Amazingly, there are still people in America who are caught in the film. It is still astonishing to see people spout out the most ridiculous things, though with Borat’s assistance, and with no idea how stupid what they are saying.
Since Borat is a well known person, Maria Bakalova, who plays Tutar, plays a key role in many of the scenes and does a fantastic job of playing alongside, and is equally as talented as, Sacha Baron Cohen. Many of the scenes together with an unsuspecting target/s are excellent viewing. There are some laugh out loud moments along with some some cringe-inducing moments, including their dance at some conservative ball room, their visit to a anti-abortion center after Tutar eats a ‘baby’, and their scene with Rudy Giuliani. One of things that got me laughing, which wasn’t played in full if you watch the trailer was this line from Tutar about her father when she is talking to the babysitter, ‘My daddy is the smartest person in the whole flat world’ (my emphasis).
In the latter half of the film, Maria Bakalova really struts her stuff and has an incredible transformation. You need to watch the film to know what I mean.
There are heaps of moments that embarrass the people targeted by Sacha Baron Cohen and Maria Bakalova. There are even some incredible cameos in the film like Mike Pence, O.J. Simpson and Tom Hanks.
By film’s end, the message is clear, Americans need to vote. The 2020 election is the most important election to date. Even from my perspective, you can tell that the whole world is watching in anticipation and trepidation on the result.
In a year lacking some big releases, you can watch the film Borat Subsequent Moviefilm if you have an Amazon Prime subscription, which is AUD$6.99 per month, and it was released on 23 October 2020.
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