by Eric Blume
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, the sequel to Sacha Baron Cohen's 2006 smash hit, has arrived on Amazon, and just within the first days of its arrival, the film has the country buzzing on whether or not Rudy Guiliani thought he was going to get laid by a teenager, plus registered a hateful tweet from Trump (and a hilarious comeback from Cohen to Trump). When is the last time a movie provoked that kind of high-level anxiety?
The original Borat movie was revelatory at the time, an extension of the mockumentary style we'd seen since the Spinal Tap days, but roping in the clueless general populace to create a brutal takedown on American stupidity, racism, and sexism. But the approach from the Borat creative team felt fresh...
There was an original comic horror in watching Cohen/Borat catch these people so coldly in moments where they expressed exactly who they were. It was the definition of holding a mirror up to society. There had been nothing quite like it before, and in my mind, the scene where Borat argues and wrestles naked in a motel room and out onto the street with his Kazakh companion remains the single funniest scene in any movie these past two decades.
The smartest call the creative team makes for Subsequent Moviefilm is in their acknowledgement that many people in the country are savvier to being captured on camera and the toll it might take on them, and the team makes intelligent adjustments to pull off this film. Borat himself notes early in the movie that his previous fame in the USA now forbids him to get honest reactions from people, so most of the "caught footage" in the movie is Borat/Cohen in a different disguise.
And this is where the artistry of Cohen and his team comes in. They modify their style for this sequel. While the crux of their conceit is still in this caught footage, where Cohen goes in undercover to see what he will naturally get from the people in his prank space, this material is a smaller overall portion of this film. Instead, the Subsequent Moviefilm team adds in both fully-scripted material (e.g., the one-on-one scenes with Borat and his daughter), partial-improv material with actors hired to appear like they are regular people in caught footage (e.g., the babysitter, the two rednecks he lives with), and pre-set-up scenes that still have a let's-wing-it-and-see-what-we-get approach (e.g., the synagogue stint). The artistry comes from this team being fully in control on how they approached each scene to maximize the potential for funny. This is extraordinarily sophisticated comedy, always out on a limb, often with a sense of palpable risk and numerous dangerous outcomes...but all controlled at the center. It's no simple feat to balance that level of control with that level of chaos...but then very few people even attempt something this bold and difficult. Subsequent Moviefilm aims high throughout and delivers most of the time, with even the less-better-hit targets being at least interesting.
The first ten minutes of Subsequent Moviefilm contains more actual jokes than most films do in 90 minutes. While those jokes may or may not work for you, and actually make you laugh, is of course subjective...but objectively, the jokes are THERE. It's a rapid-fire attempt to just machine-gun at you, hoping at least something will land with everyone. There's honor in that approach for a comedy.
The revelation in the sequel subsequent movie is Maria Bakalova, the young actress who plays Borat's daughter. In any just world, we'd be talking about a Best Supporting Actress nomination for this performance (yes, I am stone serious). Bakalova creates a completely original comic character: she's fully committed to the absurdities of the role without ever commenting on them, always finding the joke but never playing the joke. She also calibrates her character's dawning awareness with incredible care, making the growth of her character and the transition of her relationship with Borat feel absolutely genuine and earned. Then there's the balls-out bravado with which she enters the improv comedy scenarios: the already-infamous scene with Guiliani is an insane high-wire act where she has to remain in character, manipulate a politican and his entire team, conduct a "real scene" with her father when he appears and have Guiliani believe it, and see how far she can push the politician into awful territory. Plus, she not only goes toe-to-toe with Cohen in their scenes, but she makes him better... they have a rapport that's heavenly.
Subsequent Moviefilm will be divisive. The title character and the approach of the filmmaking is abrasive, but by design. One of its purposes is to make you feel uncomfortable. In a climate where everyone is very sensitive and it's difficult to laugh about anything, the Borat team comes into the ring swinging, punching very very hard, with an uncompromising spirit that we haven't seen in a long time. It has its own freshness, and the fourteen year break has re-inspired its makers. It's a major accomplishment. A-