Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm
Once again Sacha Baron Cohen pushes the envelope just when the world needs to laugh
at its own tragedy.
Trump card: Sacha Baron Cohen as the commander in chief
Even as this week’s headlines make a mockery of last week’s
news, one can rely on Sacha Baron Cohen to shake things up. In spite of being a
sequel to a fourteen-year-old hit, Borat:
Subsequent Moviefilm is so topical and bang-on – and so welcome – that it
makes one’s tear ducts bleed. And, squeezing in before the US election, it ends
with the caption NOW VOTE – OR YOU WILL BE EXECUTE. Needless to say, Baron
Cohen sends up Trump’s heartland demographic with such blistering acuity that one
almost feels sorry for them. But Baron Cohen’s net is much wider than the
struggle for America’s future, as it demonises every form of self-righteous
pomposity with all guns blazing. In an age of woke timidity, it is gobsmacking to
see the comedian lance every politically correct boil in his path. Laugh or be
damned.
At heart a mockumentary, Borat:
Subsequent Moviefilm does have a plot. Having brought shame on the Republic
of Kazakhstan (the ninth largest country in the world) for making fun of it in his
2004 moviefilm, Borat Sagdiyev (Baron Cohen) has been serving time in the gulag
– and forbidden from ever “make reporting” again. Still, it was a better fate
than that which befell the film’s producer, who was turned into an armchair in
the presidential palace. It is there that Borat is frogmarched to learn of his
new mission. In his absence, the “US&A was ruin by an evil man who stood
against all American values – Barack Obama. This led to other Africans becoming
political leaders” (cut to a photo of a blacked-up Justin Trudeau). But now
that McDonald Trump has risen to power – and shown favour to dubious world
leaders – the Kazakh president wants in on the party. So Borat is tasked to deliver
a gift to Mike Pence (“Mike Penis, the vice pussy-grabber”), in the hope of strengthening
ties between the two nations.
Of course, the plot is just an excuse on which to hang a
series of outrageous skits that show up the absurdity of the modern world, the US
in particular. But since the success of Borat,
Baron Cohen is now a recognisable figure (“people make recognize my face”) and
is besieged by autograph hunters and selfie narcissists. So, in order to carry
out his plan, Borat adopts a number of outlandish disguises, including – spoiler
alert – a Donald Trump fat suit, on which occasion he is apprehended by
security. If nothing else, Baron Cohen is completely fearless and repeatedly milks
the civility of well-meaning Americans, the better to shame them. It’s an
uncomfortable mix, tossing in genuine belly laughs alongside toe-curling scenes
of public humiliation. Inevitably, he frequently over-steps the mark, and a
sequence in which he and his daughter perform a fertility dance at a debutante
ball is one such, a moment of impropriety that will be talked about for years
to come.
Borat: Subsequent
Moviefilm will certainly earn its place on the cultural landscape and, for
all its missteps and crudity, it has more wit and courage packed into any ten
minutes than most comedies can hope for in two hours. Its swipes at feminism,
anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, racism, incest, the “hoax virus” and Trump hit
home with the force of a knuckle duster and challenges us to laugh at
ourselves. As his running mate (Borat’s “non-male son” Tutar), Maria Bakalova is
a terrific sport and risks the ire of real-life participants all on her own. Some
famous figures come off intact, but one can’t help feeling sorry for Rudy
Giuliani, who has already become the talking point of the film. Others, though,
were obviously in on the act, as no camera operator can be completely
invisible.
Original title: Borat
Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make
Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Sacha Baron
Cohen, Maria Bakalova, Dani Popescu, Mike Pence and Rudy Giuliani, Macy Chanel,
Pastor Jonathan Bright, Dr Jean Sheffield, Jeanise Jones, Tom Hanks, Rita
Wilson and the late Judith Dim Evans (to whom the film is dedicated).
Dir Jason Woliner,
Pro Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines
and Monica Levinson, Screenplay Peter
Baynham, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jena Friedman, Anthony Hines, Lee Kern, Dan Mazer,
Erica Rivinoja and Dan Swimer, from a story by Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony
Hines, Nina Pedrad and Dan Swime, Ph Luke
Geissbühler, Pro Des David Saenz de
Maturana, Ed Craig Alpert, Michael
Giambra and James Thomas, Music Erran
Baron Cohen, Costumes Erinn Knight, Second Unit Dir Sacha Baron Cohen.
Four by Two Films/Oak Springs Productions-Amazon Studios.
120 mins. UK/USA. 2020. Rel: 23 October 2020. Cert. 15.