Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen, Maria Bakalova, Dani Popescu, Miroslav Tolj, Tom Hanks (cameo)
Directed by: Jason Woliner
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy
2020

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Kazakhstan journalist Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) returns to the United States to deliver a bribe to Vice-President Mike Pence.

Review:

Tim: I was pleasantly surprised by the original Borat. It was awkward and uncomfortable, but it also shined a light on aspects of America that we needed to be reminded exist. It was a thoughtful movie wrapped up in a ridiculous one. It had more than a few flaws, but it was a solid movie. Unexpectedly, 14 years later, during a global pandemic, Sacha Baron Cohen released a surprise sequel (amazingly, aspects of which were filmed during the pandemic). This movie follows a similar approach to the original and once again hits on some powerful messages in utterly ridiculous package. Suffice to say, I enjoyed Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

Cohen's brilliance is on full display here (as opposed to his truly heinous Bruno). He skewers aspects of American culture while engaging with unsuspecting people, saying the most outlandish things possible. It's funny, it's awkward, and yet, it also reveals something about people. What was so amazing is that during filming, the pandemic broke out. Cohen shoehorned this into his film, so it's one of the earliest movies to address Covid-19. Indeed, it's the first film I've seen that even mentioned the horrific events we've been living through for 7+ months. That helps give it a very timely feel.

Now, while Cohen getting regular people to reveal terrible beliefs they have is interesting, the movie powerful aspects of the film involve him going after famous people. This really happens in two memorable situations. One, he crashes a Mike Pence rally, bursting into the room shouting, dressed as Donald Trump, carrying a woman over his shoulder. That's stunning, that he was able to achieve that. It was a dangerous move. On screen, you can see the Vice-President's discomfort with the outburst. I still can't believe the guts it took to do this. Secondly, and most famously, Cohen gets Rudy Giuliani in a very compromising situation. I won't get into the details, nor Giuliani's ridiculous (tucking in my microphone) excuse. It's hard to watch those scenes and feel like Giuliani is anything but a creep. Cohen exposed that aspect of this very famous man and should be applauded for the brazen attempt and the tenacity to pull it off.

There's too many other stunts to go into, but perhaps the most disturbing is when Cohen tricks a right-wing militia group into singing along with a racist song about infecting Obama with the "Wuhan flu". Now, it's true that not everyone in the audience appreciated the song, but it's shocking how many people did. The song is catchy and awful and many in the crowd went along. It's a sad moment when you consider what that reveals about America.

I give Sacha Baron Cohen a ton of credit. He's obviously the driving force behind this movie. He also routinely puts himself in dangerous and uncomfortable situations. Many of these pay off, some of them don't (I thought the scene where he's dressed up, talking to two elderly Jewish women was a miss). This whole thing was especially challenging since many would recognize him dressed up as Borat. He did a tremendous job. Maria Bakalova deserves massive amounts of praise as well. For an early-career actress to do what she did here is astounding. Her performance was pitch perfect, and like Cohen, she puts herself in terribly frightening situations (Giuliani's is just the scariest). Bakalova was truly something to behold and she emerges as the film's biggest surprise. I loved how Cohen and Bakalova worked together. One final note on the cast, I have to applaud Tom Hanks for appearing in a hilarious, quick cameo.

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is a good movie. It suffers from some of the same issues as the original, but it's a movie that deserves watching and discussing. I was quite impressed with the story as well- it's not just a collection of random, uncomfortable encounters. Cohen tells a timely story that expertly connected to the coronavirus pandemic. This is an important movie in 2020 and one that people will likely revisit.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan