Borat Subsequent Moviefilm : Review of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
“Jangshemash!”
Back in 2006, before smartphones and social media, in the era of Bush, Sacha Baron Cohen, the comedian-provocateur extraordinaire, dressed in his now-iconic grey suit, paid his first visit to the “US and A”, the “Greatest Country in the World”, as Borat Sagdiyev, a Kazakh journalist. Outrageously anti-Semitic, misogynistic, racist, homophobic and whatnot, Borat is one of his several fictional alter egos, rather, the most controversial one. Along with Ali G and Bruno Gehard, all played by Sacha himself, the character of Borat first appeared on his satirical television series Da Ali G Show (2000–2004). Filmed like a mockumentary, much of Borat’s humour is derived from unscripted vignettes of him interacting with real-life Americans under the pretence of not understanding even a bit of American customs while maintaining a semblance of childlike innocence. As politically incorrect as it gets, Borat’s brand of offensive humour serves as a potent weapon in unmasking the true face of America, that is, revealing their inherent bigotry. As expected, this ended up offending both the ones it set out to offend and the ones it didn’t mean to. People of Kazakhstan felt duped and thus, the government of Kazakhstan denounced the film at first, even threatening to sue Sacha Baron Cohen on the pretext of being shown in an unfavourable light, but later, it regained a sort of ‘cult’ status as the joke wasn’t completely lost on Kazakhstan. Neither anti-Kazakh nor anti-Semitic, Borat is fiercely anti-American.
Fourteen years after his daring hit-or-miss experiment, Borat returns with a ‘subsequent moviefilm’ in the age of Trump, post-truth and COVID-19. Mostly shot in the last few months amidst a global pandemic situation, a new Borat film is exactly what the world needs right now. The situation has changed so much in the last fourteen years with the Internet influencing most of our opinions, with ‘McDonald’ getting elected, with a deadly virus looming large that shooting a new Borat film was rather risky. No longer a stranger, the fact that Borat is now widely-recognised everywhere he goes is used to a greater effect as a running gag in the film. Appearing in hilarious, eye-catching, shape-shifting disguises for most of its running time, nothing is really impossible for Sacha as he makes effective use of stereotypes to get his point across.
The ‘Subsequent Moviefilm’ opens with Borat getting released from a ‘gulag’ after fourteen years with a mission to deliver the self-explanatory ‘prodigious bribe’ to President Donald Trump in an effort to redeem the ‘once glorious nation of Kazakhstan’ and thus begins a globe-trotting series of misadventures. Maria Bakalova is introduced as Borat’s daughter Tutar in her breakout role. It’s not easy to hold one’s own alongside a comedic genius like Sacha Baron Cohen, but she does it with unflinching ease as she plays a greater role in Borat than and for Borat himself. While many might complain that it lacks the laugh-a-minute intensity of the original, it works as a scathing, in-your-face critique of the times we are living in right at the moment you are reading this review.
I’ll admit that the film’s seemingly unscripted scenes constitute its funniest as well as weakest moments as it feels forced at times lacking the ingenuity of the original. Pranking the likes of a salesperson, an Instagram influencer, a plastic surgeon, a pastor, a babysitter, just to name a few, the film’s highlights are the bits involving vice-president Mike Pence and a rather ‘below-the-belt’ sting involving the current Trump attorney, Rudy Giulani.
The film starts off on a similar high left by its predecessor, but stumbles right at the moments it tries to appease the people involved. While this has much to do with its attempt to spell ‘politically correct’ out loud, the satire gets slightly diluted and spoon-fed.
In its final moments, the film takes a hopeful, wholesome turn even if it paints a bleak picture of the future. Whether Kazakhstan truly becomes a ‘feminist nation’ or Borat and Tutar finally comes of age to shed all their prejudices is a matter of time.
For all its flaws, it’s fascinating that a film like this still gets made and released. In the age of fake news, QAnon, Coronavirus and Donald Trump, let there be Borat.
“Chenquieh.”
Copyright ©2020 AlternateTake. This article should not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL instead, would be appreciated.
