Review: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020)

I never expected to get more Borat, and yet here he is, roaring back with the funniest film of the year. To be granted, it’s been a weird year, lacking for laughs and major film releases. But after Sacha Baron Cohen’s Kazakh reporter became the biggest comedic icon on the planet back in 2006, it seemed impossible for Baron Cohen to trick ordinary people while playing the character anymore. It seems he has found a way, though. He blends the use of prosthetics and costumes that he used in Showtime’s Who Is America? with more scripted segments, filmed with other actors. The resulting film is a welcome surprise and a messy, funny clarification of the absurdity of our current moment.

In the film (the long onscreen title of which is Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan), disgraced reporter Borat has to head to America to bribe a member of the Trump administration in order to curry favour for Kazakhstan and make up for the humiliations to the country caused by the popularity of the first film. The bribe is originally intended to be Johnny the Monkey, an ape porn star and the Kazakh Minister of Culture—this is indicative of how absurd and funny the opening minutes of the film are. 

However, Borat’s mission is complicated when his daughter, Tutar (Maria Bakalova), smuggles her way into Johnny’s crate and eats him during transit. Borat has to figure out a back-up plan, which turns out to be to deliver Tutar to Mike Pence during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). And so Borat and Tutar journey across the country to CPAC where she’ll be handed over to Pence and complete his mission. Along the way, they meet with ordinary Americans and Baron Cohen does his usual shtick (now aided by Bakalova) of coaxing out bigotry or horrifying the people he talks to with his outrageous exaggerations of an oafish foreigner.

As is now standard operating procedure for Baron Cohen, the film has him interview a mixture of low-profile celebrities, conservative professionals, and ordinary folks he meets on the street. Sometimes, these encounters are outrageous, such as when Baron Cohen and Bakalova speak with a crisis pregnancy counselor and pastor and make it seem as if Borat has impregnated Tutar. The pastor is understandably horrified, but Borat jokes around with him, underplaying the implications of what he’s saying. Other moments are more subdued, such as Baron Cohen’s encounters with a UPS store clerk, paying the man to fax absurd messages back and forth with officials in Kazakhstan. It’s an extended bit that Baron Cohen returns to throughout the film, but it almost always lands, mostly due to how nonchalant the clerk is when responding to Borat’s escalatingly stupid messages.

In other moments, Baron Cohen uses more gotcha tactics. The most infamous of this is the interview with Rudy Guliani that culminates the film. Bakalova, as Tutar, interviews Guliani about how the Chinese created COVID-19 and escalates the absurd encounter by luring Guliani into a bedroom and getting him to stick his hand down his pants, presumably to tuck in his shirt, with the lingering possibility that the encounter would’ve become something more uncomfortable had Borat not stormed in to break it up. In this interview and others, Baron Cohen is primarily making fun of conservative America. 

While the brilliance of Who Is America? was born out of its equal-opportunity satire, attacking both the American Left and Right, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm focuses solely on the MAGA contingent and doesn’t let up. Some of this leads to diminishing returns, such as when he agitates at a right-wing rally and gets attendees to chant about killing Democrats and how COVID-19 is fake. But other moments, such as an animated cartoon about Trump meeting Melania made to look like Disney’s Cinderella, or a raucous, disgusting dance at a Southern cotillion, justify the comedic approach. Just because it’s predictable to attack right-wing America doesn’t mean it’s not funny when Baron Cohen does it.

The reason that Baron Cohen’s jokes land when other comedians’ don’t is because Baron Cohen isn’t lazy in his comedic approach. The vast majority of liberal comedians are content to simply reiterate the absurdities of the right and call it a day, but not Baron Cohen. He doesn’t capitulate to the insanity of current politics, thinking it’s funny enough as is; instead, he pushes everything to near breaking point, amplifying even the most crass displays of bigotry. The result is that Borat Subsequent Moviefilm doesn’t seem like a simple rehash of how broken the modern world is; it still has the capacity to go further than you anticipate.

The unique circumstances of its production during COVID-19 also work their way into the film and inform the later parts of the narrative. Baron Cohen shot much of the film after the arrival of COVID-19 in the United States, making his interactions with ordinary Americans risky, to say the least. But the film does more than simply capitalize on this riskiness. It makes the pandemic and what it says about America essential to the film’s effect. 

Perhaps the best part of the film comes when Borat hunkers down with two conspiracy-obsessed MAGA supporters in their home. The men bizarrely allow Borat to stay with them for several days and help him plan to reunite with Tutar at an upcoming rally. While holed up together, the men talk about QAnon conspiracy theories, discuss the danger of Democrats, and attempt to rid their home of the virus through Lysol spray and a thwack of a cast iron pan. But the men also are gracious and hospitable to Borat. Not only do they let him stay with them, but they seem concerned about Borat’s relationship with his daughter. They also hilariously try to argue against Borat’s misogyny and explain why women are equals. It’s the kind of moment that reveals the profound contradictions of conservative America: that these conspiracy-obsessed men who distrust foreigners and progressives would also invite a foreigner into their home and try to dissuade his chauvinism.

There’s something heartwarming about the messy humanity on display, which is clarified as the film builds towards a conclusion centred on the reconciliation between Borat and Tutar. Even more than the first film, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm ultimately reveals itself to be a film about growth and maturation in the midst of absurdity, embodied by Borat’s oafish foreigner learning to overcome his bigotry and connect with other people. To be sure, it’s also an absurd, gross, outrageously lowbrow comedy, but like a Farrelly Brothers’ joint, it’s also about human connection.

It’s uncertain whether Borat Subsequent Moviefilm will age well. It’s comedy is so specific to 2020, when the pandemic and Trump brought America to new levels of absurdity. But it provided much-needed laughs and genuine provocation in our uncertain present. It’s the rare film to actually outdo the absurdity of modern reality and say something genuine in the process.

7 out of 10

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2020, USA)

Directed by Jason Woliner; written by Peter Baynham, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jena Friedman, Anthony Hines, Lee Kern, Dan Mazer, Erica Rivinoja, Dan Swimer, based on a story by Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Nina Pedrad, Dan Swimer, based on a character created by Sacha Baron Cohen; starring Sacha Baron Coha, Maria Bakalova, Dani Popescu.

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