Worth: $15.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Sacha Baron Cohen, Maria Bakalova, a shitload of confused Americans
Intro:
...a frequently hilarious, often shocking, occasionally grim slice of absurd comedy with a strong political subtext.
The original Borat came out in 2006 and was a dangerously hilarious pisstake of, well, pretty much everything in American culture. Sacha Baron Cohen’s guileless journalist from Kazakhstan character, originally made famous on Da Ali G Show, immediately became an international pop culture icon, and was quoted endlessly by everyone, especially that one dickhead at the office who never knew when to shut up. You don’t even have a wife, Trevor, give it a bone! Anyway, now Borat has returned in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (or Borat 2 as we’ll be calling it henceforth) and the result is both funny, awkward and at times shocking.
Borat Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen) has fallen on hard times and harder labour. The release of the original Borat has made Kazakhstan a laughing stock on the world stage and the government is not pleased. To make amends, and avoid further incarceration or death, Borat is sent to America with the gift of a talented monkey and a dream to redeem the good name of Kazakhstan. However, America’s divided states are a very different place these days, and Borat must navigate the powder keg-filled minefield that is the US in 2020.
First things first, Borat 2 is similar to its predecessor in that it’s a series of loosely linked skits, some filmed with actors, others with unsuspecting citizens, that sketch out an amiable comedic parabola that leads up to a typically outrageous ending. The biggest addition this time is Borat’s daughter, Tutar (Maria Bakalova), who is so utterly committed to her role that she feels like a natural, and hilarious, addition. Borat and Tutar lob around, getting into mischief, that includes (but is not limited to) commissioning an anti-Semitic cake to be made, crashing a Republican convention, singing a wildly racist country and western song at an anti-lockdown rally and – in what is easily the film’s funniest moment – attending the Macon debutante ball and performing a father-daughter dance that… just… honestly, you have to see it to believe it.
Borat 2 is also much more overtly political than the previous flick, tapping the vein of Cohen’s real life anger at Facebook, Trump and the open racism that seems to have infected so much of the discourse of late. While laudable, this does at times slow the flow of hilarity, making Borat 2 a less consistent jape-cannon, although when it hits it hits hard. A gag towards the end, involving a certain glowering Republican lickspittle, is so beautifully-realised and savage it’s almost hard to believe what you’re watching.
Borat 2 is a frequently hilarious, often shocking, occasionally grim slice of absurd comedy with a strong political subtext. It’s an angrier film for an angrier time, but also contains some of the biggest bellylaughs you’re likely to encounter in this hell year. Well worth a watch, but we suggest you do so with friends, a stiff drink (or three) and a pillow to occasionally hide behind.
