Mark Reviews Movies: BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM: DELIVERY OF PRODIGIOUS BRIBE TO AMERICAN REGIME FOR MAKE BENEFIT ONCE GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN

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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 22, 2020

Borat, the misogynistic and anti-Semitic and Uzbek-hating journalist from Kazakhstan, returns after a long break. We find out why at the start of (Take a deep breath) Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, a title that gives even the film's predecessor (Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan) a run for its money in terms of word count.

Even the title becomes a joke, as our hapless and more-than-occasionally hateful protagonist keeps finding his plan—to bribe a member or affiliate of the current Presidential administration in order to make his country's leader part of the unofficial international "strongman club" of dictators and actual or wannabe authoritarians—foiled. The film, once again presented as a documentary of Borat's interviews and inevitable misadventures across the United States (or "U.S. and A.," as he calls it), can't keep up with his adjustments. In a roller coaster of renewed expectations and excited anticipation, a new title pops up with every change in the plan and target of Borat's proposed bribe—not to mention the target of actor Sacha Baron Cohen's inevitable mockery and hopeful confrontations.

It's strange to be watching Borat again in 2020, not only because it has been 14 years since his last adventure and not only because the year has become defined by a global pandemic that has resulted in so much illness, death, and unnecessary politicization. It's also strange because sensibilities have changed.

Indirectly, Borat, whose assorted and many prejudices were a joke about the character and not sincere jokes made by a figure who should be taken seriously, is probably going to look particularly bad in this era and at this particular moment of political thinking. That remains the joke. He's not a good, decent, and/or thoughtful man. In the first film, the character served as a mirror, reflecting the assorted prejudices and bigotry of his "interview" subjects back at them—almost always unseen and unrecognized.

Baron Cohen set out to reveal those attitudes in the tradition of guerilla theater—making real people unaware players in a show. The most distressing thing about this sequel (beyond the words and actions of everyday people and one particular person of influence, whom—trust me—we will be getting back to later) is that, by the end, the mirror that is Borat has broken, simply because even he can no longer stand the people staring into him.

In a more direct way, the sensibilities surrounding Borat have changed because people are aware of the gag. Because of the first film, they know Baron Cohen, and they know Borat. This provides a challenge for the actor, as well as—in the logic of the film—the character, and director Jason Woliner—one met and overcome by a series of ridiculous disguises (such as "John Chevrolet"), which are funny on their own.

To help the performance remain unrecognized, Borat also gets a partner in the person of his previously unknown daughter Tutar (Maria Bakalova, who more than holds her own with Baron Cohen and on her own in the various stunts). Her presence leads to some material that Borat/Baron Cohen could never get on his own, including a visit to a Christian "emergency" women's clinic (where a pastor says he "understands" and doesn't care about apparent incest, although the gag involves an elaborately hilarious misunderstanding) or a debutante ball, where a Southern "gentleman" quickly and lecherously puts a price tag on Tutar.

The plot, such as it is, has Borat, imprisoned in a labor camp since the first film's release for making Kazakhstan a global laughingstock, enlisted by the country's premier (played by Dani Popescu) to bribe Vice President Michael Pence in order to get on President "McDonald" Trump's good side. The first intended bribe is a monkey, locally famous as both the Minister of Culture and a porno star. When Tutar shows up in the delivery crate with a mostly eaten monkey carcass ("He ate himself," she claims), Borat needs to find a new bribe or face execution back home. After seeing footage of Trump hanging out and commenting upon women with a certain notorious and now-dead friend of the sitting President, Borat determines that men of power might like his 15-year-old daughter (One does, as, again, we'll definitely get to in a bit).

The jokes, the mock interviews, and the stunts are non-stop. Borat learns about smartphones (an "electronic abacus," as he calls it, while still sending short faxes like text messages to the Kazakh premier) and online porn. He infiltrates a national conference for conservatives, first dressed as a member of the KKK and then disguised as Trump. As world events involving the pandemic arrive, Borat makes friends with a couple of conspiracy theorists and eventually ends up on stage at a "pro-rights" (or, more accurately, "anti-health") rally, where he gets the crowd to chant that their political rivals should be chopped up and one guy offers a most-telling salute.

For her part, Tutar gets a few stunts of her own. There's the clinic, the ball, a meeting of Republican women, and a stay with a babysitter, who shows that there's a way to address the words and actions of people like these characters, without "being nice" and, in the process, reflecting those attitudes (Borat ends up in a synagogue, where a kind and gentle Holocaust survivor shows him far more compassion than he deserves).

The character and Bakalova, pretending to be a "journalist" from a right-wing website, also get the most damning footage from a stunt. After a creepy and conspiracy-laden interview with the sitting President's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani ends up in a hotel bedroom with her, treating his hands to her and then, pretty clearly, to himself. In a just world, this moment, which should become news, would be the end of a man's career. In our current political and news climate, it will, sadly, probably be a minor blip. Here's hoping, though—and here's also hoping for some funny, potentially revealing lawsuits.

Like its predecessor, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is crass and offensive. Also like the original, the sequel again holds up a mirror to the state of our politics, society, and culture. This time, though, the world won't be laughing at Kazakhstan.

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