Year of Release: 2020
Director: Jason Woliner
Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen, Maria Bakalova, Dani Popescu, Manuel Vieru, Alin Popa
Genre: Comedy
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 6
Watch it on Amazon
Synopsis and Review:
The world has changed quite substantially since Larry Charles's "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" came out in 2006. This sequel takes the premise of the first film, and places that journalist once again in American soil, wreaking havoc. This time around we find Borat imprisoned within a gulag, following the events depicted on the first film, which caused an embarrassment for the nation of Kazakhstan. In an attempt to redeem the nation, the Prime Minister frees Borat, and tasks him with presenting the Minister of Culture, Johnny the Monkey, to the current President of the United States. Following some events that took place in the first film, and since those prevent him from gifting the President, Borat decides instead to gift the monkey to the Vice President. As he makes his way to America on a boat, we finally see him anchored in Texas, where he witnesses he has gained recognition and fame as a result of the first film. Much to his horror, he also discovers that the monkey is in fact dead, since his daughter, a stowaway who traveled in the same crate as the monkey, actually ate him during their lengthy ocean trip. He decides to gift the Vice President with his daughter, and both Borat and Tutar embark on a roadtrip to both get to the VP, but also polish her approach in order to please the VP.
The first "Borat" is an interesting and powerful film, in the sense that while built as a mockumentary, in reality exposes behaviors from actual people from different parts of the country, laying bare topics such as anti-semitism, racism and homophobia. If the first film managed to be simultaneously hilarious and cringe inducing, due primarily to situations that the character inserted himself into, in this sequel, the cat is very much out of the bag, and the aspect of novelty (and shock) isn't there anymore. Even with the disguises that Borat comes up with, he himself approaches the topic of being too well known for the "documentary" to effectively capture authentic reactions. Nonetheless, the film manages to simultaneously tackle topics such as feminism, abortion, racism, anti-semitism, while continuing to expose the decadent aspect of what some may consider conservative politics, which in the end is illustrated as glorified ignorance (and hypocrisy). Even if this film's approach isn't as fresh as the first one turned out to be, it still manages to make its point, and deliver some good laughs. It also serves as an interesting document, demonstrating not only the state of a nation, but also how the country has changed in 14 years, and yet some behaviors, originating from people from different venues of life, stay the same, not matter what. Sacha Baron Cohen is once again fearless, making this character indelible. He is aptly supported by Maria Bakalova who plays his young daughter, Tutar, and they both manage to create some hilarious situations. Director Jason Woliner mostly known for his television work, while not bringing a particularly distinguishable point of view to the narrative, does manage to capture the humorous situations quite effectively. Worth watching.
0 comments:
Post a Comment