BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM: DELIVERY OF PRODIGIOUS BRIBE TO AMERICAN REGIME FOR MAKE BENEFIT ONCE GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN.

US/UK, 2020, 95 minutes, Colour.

Sacha Baron Cohen, Maria Bakalova, Dani Popescu, (and Mike Pence and Rudy Giuliani).

Directed by Jason Woliner.

Even Sacha Baron Cohen might issue a warning about this Subsequent Moviefilm where he takes up his character, Borat from Kazakhstan (who has been in jail there for 14 years as a result of his shenanigans in the United States, harming international relations). His fans from the days of Ali G, through Borat, Bruno, The Dictator (while acknowledging his strong serious performance as Abbie Hoffman in The Trial of the Chicago 7) will know what to expect.

Enjoyment of his films will be a matter of taste. And some might add, a matter of bad taste. But, that is the intention of the satire, with everything (and everyone, here especially American politicians from Donald Trump to Mike Pence to Rudy Giuliani) considered fair game (by Sasha Baron Cohen that is, not the targets). All human behaviour can be the target for humour, for satire, sexuality and bodily functions, of course, issues of race and prejudice, bigotry, and stances on the extreme right.

So, with fair warning, and expecting the challenge to taste, it can be said that there are some very funny sequences in this film over and above the long title. Borat is his old self, accent and all, often obtuse, out of prison, discovering he has a 15-year-old daughter, newly commissioned to go to the United States to offer the gift of a celebrated monkey to Mike Pence. On the way, through various states, and with all kinds of disguises (including a Donald Trump mask at a Republican Convention with Mike Pence), with all kinds of pranks set-ups that Sasha Baron Cohen is famous for, encountering a lot of pleasant ordinary people along the way (Brian who sells mobile phones to an amazed Borat, the generous man who keeps faxing messages to the Kazakhstan president and back, the lady in the shop who acts as a fashion consultant, the beautician offering advice for his daughter, the kindly babysitter Jeanise Jones, who bonds with his daughter.

And the daughter is played by Bulgarian actress, Maria Bakalova, rather a game performance with all the things she is asked to do, with a hideously out of date book for sex instruction, her embarrassing breakthrough, an even more embarrassing dance at the prom. She received a Golden Globe nomination as well as Oscar nomination.

The most famous scene, talked and written about, causing controversy, is a prank set up where Rudy Giuliani eagerly agrees to do an interview with the daughter, is seen behaving more than a touch compromisingly in the aftermath, caught by borate.

Sacha Baron Cohen has very little time for American right-wing politics, has a sequence with two conspiracy theorists, Borat also believing that there was no Holocaust but meeting elderly Jewish women in the synagogue who explain that it happened.

Some of Sacha Baron Cohen’s fans have complained that it was too much like the original film – but, others have enjoyed his taking up the character once again, traversing the United States, holding so much up to satiric mockery, an ending, before the 2020 election where he was certainly not for the re-election of Donald Trump, and the sadness of the covid lockdown.

1. The films of Sacha Baron Cohen? His type of satire? Upfront, pranks, wide range, awkward and embarrassing moments for subjects and audience? His acting skills?, Textile?
2. The original film, 2006, Kazakhstan, going to the US, the satire?
3. Borate, 14 years in prison, embarrassment to Kazakhstan? His release, the politics, the president, his mission? The monkey and its background? Gift to the United States? His discovery of his daughter?
4. Going to the United States after meeting his daughter, acknowledging her, the choice of travelling in the cage, stowing away to America, eating the monkey? Her personality, prospects? The range of change throughout the United States, appearance, body enhancement, sexual issues, fashion and clothes? The discovery of American food? Relating to people? Her becoming the gift for Mike Pence?
5. Borate, in the United States, something of a celebrity, his range of disguises, wigs, beards, even Donald Trump? His experiences, Brian and the Internet, sending the faxes back and forth to Kazakhstan, at the fair, discussion with the beautician, fashion and clothes, plastic surgery and enhancement? Shopkeepers? Meeting the rednecks, the conspiracy theories, staying with them? Going to rallies?
6. The various meetings, the Republican women, the daughter at the meeting, her frank discussion about sexual behaviour, the book and its mythologies, her own sexual experience? The prom, the menstruation dance? Borate going to work at the Barbers to and money for the plastic surgery? His meeting Jeannie Jones, asking her to babysit?
7. Jeannie Jones, her friendship with the daughter, the change of attitudes, the bond of friendship?
8. The rally in Washington, the daughter and her stances?
9. The rally with Mike Pence, borate disguised, exposed? Unable to give the gift?
10. The setting up of Rudy Giuliani, the daughter as a reporter, the setup, the interview, Giuliani’s behaviour, of the bed, his trousers?
11. The Jewish theme, anti-Semitism, the existence of the Holocaust, borate and his visit, the discussions with the survivors, changing his mind?
12. Covert 19, 2020, the United States, the lockdown, its effect?
13. The impact of the satire? Broad? Even awkward?