Wa wa wee wa! Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is finally here, and while nothing can ever replicate the shock and awe of the original, the return of Kazakhstan’s favorite son to the screen is, to say the least, an event.
Unfortunately, the pandemic has prevented this from cinemas, but its wide availability through Amazon means everyone can tune in at the same time. Here’s your chance to talk about the craziest times – contentious, macabre, or both.
From America mayor
Surely you’ve gone frame by frame by now to the outrageous ‘shirt-setting’ moment in the bedroom that caused a stir even before the film’s release.
Is it an innocent moment in which an interview subject just moves their clothes after removing a microphone? Or does the 76-year-old, three-times-divorced man think he’s about, in the parlance of the movie, to get sexy with a news anchor whose dye job would make Tomi Lahren blush?
Editing certainly kicks in (it’s a comedy, not a documentary), but the point is, there’s a lot of knees, hands (in violation of the easiest to follow Covid social distancing guidelines) and Maria Bakalova. Tutar Sagdiyev positively gushes towards Giuliani – and he eats it.
After the invitation to the room (?!) For a drink (?!), And after putting his hand on the lower back (?!) And asked for his phone number (?!)… Is he lies down with his hands in his pants seem – as zoologists would say – to “introduce” to you? Do you feel like he has lived in these circumstances before and it worked to his advantage? He shouts “oopp!” when Borat runs into the room, ordering him to put his penis down, like he knows it’s not okay?
Or is it a deliberate misinterpretation of nothing but a slightly odd circumstance?
Giuliani himself said it is a total fabrication and the image seems tampered with but a lot, even Olaf, believe that the career of Trump’s personal lawyer is officially over.
To Giuliani’s credit, he called the police at the time, suggesting he wasn’t afraid of an investigation – but he was alerting authorities to an unusually dressed man, not to mention the scene he interrupted. However, supporters of Giuliani and Trump have shown a remarkable tolerance for questionable behavior, so Rudy’s viability in the infotainment market may be something even Borat cannot stop.
If this was a world where things made sense, he should be avoided simply for saying, as he does in this movie, that: “China made the virus and let it out. And they deliberately broadcast it around the world. It’s as absurd as what the two Republican supporters in the booth are saying about Hillary Clinton drinking blood, but these guys don’t have the ear of the President of the United States.
Moon blood
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm sadly doesn’t have such a terribly funny streak as the bare fight in the original. But the Kazakh fertility dance at the debutants’ ball is approaching. Borat’s daughter, Tutar, lifting her dress in the midst of a violent flow, shocks the hall of distinguished southerners. Indeed, menstruation is the last unknown country for comedy in a world where cocks are seemingly on the parade.
What’s much more disgusting than a natural biological fact for half the planet is the grotesque old man suggesting a night with Tutar would be worth $ 500. Although whispering, his daughter surprises and is mortified. It’s a real “holy shit” moment in the Borat lore, but heartbreaking when you consider that she probably hears a lot worse at home.
Presentation of Maria Bakalova
And speaking of the young women making their debut… who the hell is Maria Bakalova ?! Matched with Sacha Baron Cohen for her fearlessness and comedic timing, she is, without a doubt, the find of the year. And the only thing the new movie has that the original doesn’t is a really touching (albeit admittedly silly) emotional arc. Tell me you didn’t feel a little thrill when the father and daughter appear in matching costume at the end!
The 24-year-old Bulgarian actor has only been involved in a few projects, including an episode of the Italian crime series Gomorrah and the Bulgarian film Transgression, in which she plays a young woman in a relationship with an older rock star.
If you want to talk about a total, committed performance in a movie this year, there isn’t a lot of competition. Frances McDormand already has two Oscars. Distribute the wealth a little and let the price of 2020, already a bizarre year with an asterisk, go to Bakalova.
“ Very good weather that we control ”
Sacha Baron Cohen came out “like himself” last year to denounce Facebook’s lethargic response to Holocaust denial on his service. It becomes a plot point in which Borat’s worldview is shattered when he “learns” that the Holocaust never happened. (For Borat, of course, the systematic attempt to genocide the Jews is one of his greatest sources of pride.)
Either way, Borat is depressed and wants to kill himself, so he heads to the nearest synagogue to wait for the next mass shooting. He comes dressed as a “Jew” (with claws, bat wings, an absurd fake nose, a cartoonish money bag in one hand and puppet strings controlling “the media” in the other) and ends by meeting two nice old Jewish ladies who take him literally and try to make him see beyond hate. For the record, Borat is delighted to hear that octogenarian Judith Dim Evans witnessed the concentration camps firsthand.
If you watch the closing credits until the end, you will see that the film is dedicated to Dim Evans, who died after filming. One quote reads: “I feel obligated to be a good person and to bring good to the world. We owe it to the dead, ”and there is a link to his website. In a strange twist, however, some of his family are taking legal action against the production.
It’s hard to understand why the field believes the late Dim Evans suffered from some sort of actionable mental angst. Baron Cohen’s costume in this scene is ridiculous, and it’s hard to imagine anyone thinking it’s anything other than a gag. The fact that the comedian who devoted much of his energy to fighting anti-Semitism then ‘dropped the mask’ to make sure the Holocaust survivor knew about the joke seems to be a mitigating factor major. Do you agree, or are you joking a little too far with someone who lost family members to the Nazi death camps, even for Borat?
‘This can’t be real‘
We’ve been saying this by watching Sacha Baron Cohen’s antics for years now, but it’s getting harder and harder to know when moments have stumbled across scripted territory. (An almost appreciated when the faces are blurry, like someone greeting Sieg Heil at the far-right rally).
The actor claims he was locked up for five days with the weirdos of QAnon, but it starts to feel a bit bogus when they go from being people you laugh at for their silly opinions to characters who actually propel the story (admittedly slim). Once Borat sends them out to persuade Tutar to let his father come back into his life, does anything smell to you?
‘Hope it’s not real’
Having said that, it would make life a little easier if some of the voices in our doomed society could be dismissed as bogus. The propane vendor bragging that his tanks can wipe out a gypsy van is perhaps worse than anything Baron Cohen has captured before. The woman decorating a cake with “the Jews will not replace us” is not great either. The plastic surgeon suggesting that he would like to “get sexy” with Tutar, but unfortunately not in front of his father (who wants to pay a job in cash) will hopefully see a drop in patients after this week.
And while few expect less from the Conservative Political Action Conference, it’s telling that they got more upset to see someone in fake Trump attire than in Ku Klux Klan robes.
For this last point, good redirection on the marketing of the film here. We were made to believe that Mike Pence’s interruption would be the climax of the chaos. While it’s hilarious to see the big Trump costume in action, it’s one of the most tamer moments in the movie.
Big success!!
Sacha Baron Cohen retired at the end of 2007 in part because he was too popular. No one could be joked by someone so famous. (Indeed, this is a major plot point in the following film, hence Borat’s need to wear disguises.) But what he doesn’t mention is that for the past 14 years, the company has been blessed / tormented by the people who make Borat Voice.
I admit that I am guilty too. There are too many slogans and it’s just too much fun. I’m shouting in Borat Voice to my cat right now. “Do you eat the croquettes?” Very pleasant!!!”
Wisely, Subsequent Moviefilm withdraws much earlier. The very first lines are a cascade of slogans, like a band perusing their hit singles early on out of obligation.
“Jagshemash!” the film starts. “My name is a Borat. My wife is niiiiiice – NOT!
The next movie begins with Borat doing Borat Voice. Brilliant.
Fax question
Borat matters, most critics will tell you, because it reflects how American values are not so different from the absurd projections of what “shitty countries” should be. But Borat is a phenomenon because Sacha Baron Cohen and his gang of writers are so funny.
One of the biggest laughs for me in Subsequent Moviefilm is a throwaway. Borat sends faxes to his prime minister. The gag is that the man at the copy center seems worried this mustached weirdo is considering giving his 15-year-old daughter to Mike Pence, but there is something beautiful about Borat’s salutary message: ‘S’ up ”. That the answer is the same but with an additional question mark is an example of the light and absurd poetry that makes Baron Cohen a genius.