Movie Breakdown: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (Noah)
Pre-Screening Stance:
I was of a certain age (mid-20s) and a certain demographic (collegiate dude) when the original Borat stormed into American movie theaters. It is not an underestimation to say that I was mildly obsessed with the film. That I spoke in the Borat accent. That I considered a Borat costume for Halloween (don’t worry, I went as a robot instead). And now, well, many, many years later, a second Borat film looms on the horizon and though my fervor of a younger age has faded, we live in a terribly f’ed up time and I can’t see a better time for the Kazakhstanian journalist to return.
Post-Screening Ramble:
What do you do with a character like Borat? Not just a comedic smash when Sasha Baron Cohen brought him to the big screen fourteen years ago, but a true cultural moment. A character – as the film quickly shows – so popular that crappy big box Halloween stores in 2020 now carry “Stupid Foreign Reporter” knock offs for those still clinging to his offense-straddling persona. How does a creator like Sasha Baron Cohen – basically a satirical master of disguise – infiltrate a whole new faction of American conservatism when everyone on the planet knows exactly who he is? How do you bring back Borat and not just flounder about with the same humor? As it turns out, well, you don’t change much.
After fourteen years in a prison camp, Borat is called back to sneak into America and deliver a famous monkey porn-star to Vice President Mike Pence so Donald Trump will finally respect Kazahkstan. For a variety of reasons this doesn’t happen and the fourth best journalist in Kazahkstan is left trying to give his daughter away to famous American politicians. And, you know, Borat hijinks occur. Secret cameras and disguises are used. The redder aspects of American culture are poked at, mocked, and revealed to be pretty f’n awful. Borat’s return as a whole works. Cohen is still funny, though the joy of his “we-wa-we-was” and “high fives” feel more nostalgically enjoyable than anything else, and in Trumpian America, he’s got some plump birds to skewer. His daughter Tutar (relative newcomer Maria Bakalova) and the evolution of their relationship (and Borat’s views on the rights of women) work well and bring a believable softness to the character. At times it’s flat and over-produced (the element of surprise Cohen had in the previous film is very evidently gone aside from the most disconnected of the people he interacts with), but in the moments where it shines, where Cohen pushes the satire to really maniacal, jaw-dropping lengths, it’s amazing. Cohen has the ability to use the sort of perceived dumbness of Borat to draw out both the best and the worst of humans, often in the same scene. A moment between Tutar and her babysitter in a car is both funny and heartwarming, a word I wouldn’t have said about any scene in the first film.
Did I love this film as much as my twenty-four year old self loved the original? Absolutely not, but that’s not the fault of the film, that’s a decade and a half of life separating me from the human I was. This is a funny film, a surprisingly warm film, the first movie I’ve seen directly address the coronavirus and the backlash against quarantine in real time. Hell, there’s moments in this film so shocking, so eyebrow raising, well, it could end up being a decidedly important film.
One Last Thought:
You want to go into this movie blind. I know, I know, the news is already out about some key scenes in the film and we are all drooling zombies drawn to the flashing lights of our magic calculators, but there are some seriously uncomfortable (and hilarious) moments in this film and all of them are bettered by a lack of knowledge of what might happen. You won’t and the film is still worth watching. But take it from me, it’s better if you come in cold.
