‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’ Was the Laugh I Needed

Thanks Sacha Baron Cohen!

When Borat came out, it felt like everyone I knew was quoting lines from the movie. Some of his odd phrases made their way into the daily lives of my friends. Though it wasn’t my type of humor, I appreciated what Cohen was doing. I was (and still am) amazed at how quickly this comedian was able to tap into our collective consciousness.

When I heard that Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan was coming to Amazon Prime, I laughed aloud. That title alone is hilarious and I still laugh at it every time I read it! Still, because it’s not quite my type of humor, I steered clear for a while. After all, there have been a lot of new movies to explore in the last couple of months. But, over the past few weeks, I’ve seen a number of ‘Top 10 of 2020’ lists with Borat Subsequent Moviefilm on it, so I had to check it out.

I’m really glad I waited. I’m not sure that I would’ve enjoyed the film as much if I had watched it before the election and all the foolishness that has happened in America since then. Right now, I’m pretty frustrated with people who look like me who live here in America. I’m annoyed that people who call themselves “patriots” will do things that are so destructive to our democracy. And it was nice to watch a film where white Americans basically made fun of themselves.

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm doesn’t even need to make jokes about America, because we are our own joke at this point. And that breaks my heart. I was both appalled and astonished while watching — these weren’t people who were paid to do a “bit.” They were real people expressing their actual thoughts. The fact that some of my fellow citizens want to hang journalists “like the Saudis do” is horrifying. It makes me want to weep and scream all at the same time.

My mouth was agape for a lot of this film. I knew that America was a mess, but I didn’t realize the lengths that our society has fallen.

Still, despite my utter horror at the real-life human beings I was seeing on screen, many moments of the film are quite funny. There are way more genitalia-related jokes than I prefer, but the characters’ reactions to everything that was happening around them were so fun. The movie is hilarious because it feels like I am in on an inside joke with Cohen who was duping all of these folks who probably hate the actor.

Researching the film after watching it, I was blown away at the measures Sacha Baron Cohen took in order to get the footage he did. He spent days with two Republican men without ever breaking character. He spent hours in the bathroom at CPAC so that he could time his entrance. His life was even endangered at certain points, like at the rally in Olympia. His commitment is part of what makes this film so hilarious and so special.

Cohen, of course, is brilliant. But one of the most shocking parts of the film was that he found the perfect counterpart in Maria Bakalova, who plays his daughter. She even steals some scenes from this seasoned actor. She is truly phenomenal in this and I cannot wait to see what she does next! She’s a young actress who I think will have a great career if that is what she wants.

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is not going to age well because it’s so heavily focused on the coronavirus and all of the foolishness that is America in 2020. However, it’s an excellent movie to watch for a little stress release. Though it’s not my type of humor, it helped me feel a little less crazy. It’s an audacious project completed during a ridiculous time in history and for that, I think it deserves quite a bit of recognition.