Wideshot Reviews: Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm (2020)
2020 is a bizarre year in a bizarre time.
Review by: Paolo Hibaler
Edited By: Robbie Claravall
Director: Leigh Whannell
Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer, Nina Pedrad
Genre: Comedy, Mockumentary
2020 is a bizarre year in a bizarre time.
A lot had happened in such a short span of time, and so much more continues to change. Greed, destruction, and cruelty continue to become recurring themes from last year. So what exactly would a year such as 2020 require in order for it to be salvaged? The delivery of prodigious bribe to the American regime to make benefit the once glorious nation of Kazakhstan, according to Sacha Baron Cohen, at least.
Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm is a sequel to 2006’s Borat, a cult classic that shocked the world with its all-encompassing crackdown on American culture: from racism to misogyny to even the false power of celebrity, Borat took no hesitation in shooting down all those pillars of the American dream, showing us just how hilarious and backward-minded the people of the great USA can really be. For the sequel, director Jason Woliner, writer-producer Sacha Baron Cohen, and the rest of the cast decide to tackle something that was overlooked in the first film — politics, or more particularly: politics in the time of COVID-19.
The plot of this film, although quite simple, is still overtly outrageous. After being thrown into the Gulag for his actions against Kazakhstan 14 years ago, Borat has been released someplace different — a home country that needs his help despite being severely outraged by the things that he did nearly two decades ago as their representative. Now, Kazakhstan needs Borat and his American expertise for a very simple task: delivering Johnny the Monkey, Kazakhstan’s most famous TV (adult) actor and Minister of Culture as a gift for Vice President Mike Pence in order to redeem the nation of Kazakhstan in the eyes of the masses and to get it into the “strongman club”, a group of leaders that represent today’s leanings towards authoritarian strongmen such as Duterte, Trump, and Putin, to name some. Of course, in jovial, Borat fashion — things go incredibly wrong. Tutar sneaks into the cargo box in which Johnny the Monkey is being shipped in, and eats him. With no other gift left to give, Borat decides that the best thing to do is to give his own daughter away (a daughter that he didn’t know even existed until he left the Gulag) to the Vice President, and so brings us to the very core of the movie.
The plot of the sequel is surprisingly strong in comparison to its predecessor. The first Borat was a film that was much more scattershot in nature, injecting as much American satire as possible in as little time through a free form, less structured mockumentary style. Although the second film still holds on to its mockumentary trappings, it doubles down on the structure, making each scene that much more important even given its flagrant slapstick, maniacally propelling the pace at breakneck speed as opposed to the former whose gears were more inconsistent. Another result of these improvements to the structure is that this film has a lot more time to be serious, without sacrifice to the harrowing comedy.
In reference to the comedy, the humor of Subsequent Moviefilm is still the classic brand of early 2000s prank-show comedy that is at the root of the Borat character but dialed up to 11. This film has a plethora of examples of scenes that topped the comedy of the first film, but there is one clear example that outshines the rest: Cohen dressing up as Donald Trump to confront Mike Pence at the Conservative Political Action Conference to give his daughter away as a gift. The only setpiece of the first film that reaches this height is the harrowing scene with Pamela Anderson at the end. The fact that this setpiece with Mike Pence is one of the earliest of Subsequent Moviefilm shows just how much higher the comedic stakes are, and most of those heightened stakes are thanks to the powerful cast.
At the heart of this cast is Sacha Baron Cohen, whose acting, as always, is tremendously unshakable. His absurd demeanor and improvisational cues are incredibly hilarious to the point where one may wonder how he is ever able to keep such a straight face. From admitting to a doctor that he put a baby in his daughter right after an abortion request to asking a finely dressed man how much he would buy his daughter for to even getting an entire crowd of rallyists to sing along with him to inject people with the Wuhan flu, many things in this movie would destroy lesser actors, but not Cohen would require tremendous acting chops to pull off, but Cohen pulls off the rug quite well. An actor along his lines would require an equally strong co-star to keep the film balanced, and to say that newcomer Maria Bakalova is great in this role would be an incredible understatement.
Bakalova is captivating to watch. Her improvisational skills are up there with the likes of Cohen and her ability to keep character while being placed in such bizarre situations is nothing short of a miracle for an actor with a filmography as short as hers. Her on-screen presence and ability to steal the spotlight just as much as her co-star is highly commendable, tying in the heart and soul of the film amidst all its chaotic inner workings.
The original film, in terms of serious themes, barely had any. Yes, it was criticizing many aspects of American culture by trying to show us the dark underbelly that surrounded facets of the American dream, yet it was doing so without any real conviction. The film had no concrete stance on anything and aimed only to criticize every party that was representative of the things that were wrong with American culture. This film, however, takes a firmer stance on its political stances and is able to weave a better story because of it.
Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm firmly stands by the fact that the world has become darker over the 14 years since the first film’s release. No longer are people just tolerating the ignorance of the people around them, they are now active participants of it. The movie repeatedly shows us that the overt discrimination that loomed every once in a while in the first film now fills up so much of this film’s space, and that is something that we should not be pleased with.
Despite this, there is still hope to be had. One of the most surprising parts of Subsequent Moviefilm is its take on female empowerment. The film is able to showcase this with Tutar, who starts off devoid of any of the empowering ideals that are abundant in today’s society, and shows us just how positive these ideologies can really be for women. In this film, Tutar is portrayed such that her identity as a daughter and as a woman does not make her any lesser than Borat, her father. Instead of shying away from this fact, Borat encourages it, the two becoming a reporting pair upon coming back home to Kazakhstan, and who knows what bombastic hilarity this can start in the future sequels, if there are any.
Storylines such as this show that the future may not be as bleak as was once laid out. The mix of twisted comedy and prank show-era antics sprinkled with sharp political satire make Borat Subsequent Moviefilm a much better film than its predecessor and, given its respect for the political zeitgeist, a very fitting film for the hellscape that is 2020.
August 13, 2021
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