Movie Review: "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm" Star Maria Bakalova Must Wa Wa Win an Oscar

Tutar doesn't just steal a film. She may swing an election.

Bad news: there’s a pandemic on. Good news: Borat’s back. It's the trade no one would make, but it's the one we're living with.

You can rage against our current reality or mask-up and laugh—it feels good to laugh!—as Sacha Baron Cohen fools people into revealing their not-so-hidden prejudices again.

Yes, yes, I know, you’ve heard "is nice" and "my wife" recited in bad Kazakh accents ad nauseam for more than a decade, and would do anything to block it from your brain using some kind of invasive, Black Mirror-esque mental guard, no matter the price. But don’t blame Borat for its fans. Sacha Baron Cohen—whether he’s Borat, Bruno or Ali G—brings impressive depth to his intrusive characters, who are broad only on the outside specifically to confirm his targets’ preconceptions. People not getting the extremely obvious joke is the bit: no wonder he’s become a dumb catchphrase icon.

Of course, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, arriving 14 years after the first Borat, does not pack the same paradigm-shattering punch, mostly because the reveal here—that America has Nazis now—would only be a surprise if you, like Borat Sagdiyev himself, had been in a forced labour camp since 2006. Seeing him conduct actual man-on-the-street interviews with real-life white supremacists only makes him a regular journalist in 2020.

But it is just as funny, just as silly and just as satisfying to watch Republican (I assume, because c’mon) rubes walk so obliviously into scenarios where they are drawn to admit on camera that they’re really not that bothered by sex crimes, the murder of scientists or the extermination of non-whites. Don’t feel bad for the 'victims'; the same maxim applies here as it did for the ingenious meta prank show Nathan for You (also co-directed by Borat Subsequent Moviefilm helmer Jason Woliner): the only people who come off looking bad are those who are most likely to be bad people. So: high-five!

Moviefilm picks up with humiliated journalist Borat Sagdiyev in a gulag for embarrassing Kazakhstan with his last doco. He is pulled out by the Premier with a new mission: go back to America and rebuild the relationship between the two nations, since America’s 'Premier', Donald Trump, seems perfectly open to payoffs from other countries. Though Borat is charged with giving Vice President Mike Pence the "prodigious bribe" of a famous TV monkey to, ahem, make sex with, Borat arrives in Texas only to find out that his estranged, feral daughter, Tutar (Maria Bakalova), has snuck into the monkey’s crate instead (and eaten the monkey too). Now, she must be the bribe, just like her hero, the "happiest woman in the world": Melania.

And here is where Borat Subsequent Moviefilm in some ways surpasses the brilliant (and, never forget, Oscar-nominated) original: Bakalova’s performance is a force of furious nature, and she even outshines the unflappable Baron Cohen, adding heart and horrific body-comedy to proceedings. She should be rewarded by the Film Academy and the Swedish Academy for her services to humour, not to mention her well-publicised ability to not break or vomit explosively while Rudy Giuliani goes for a deep tuck while alone with her in a hotel room at the flick’s genuinely upsetting crescendo.

Meanwhile, the threat of COVID-19 lingers in the background, with the eventual lockdowns and America’s inadequate political response, as well as Borat and Tutar’s relationship, giving Borat Subsequent Moviefilm a more cohesive storyline than the original, despite once again being shot (and conceived) on the fly. The father-daughter material is risky for how genuinely sweet it is, especially given the fact that Borat, like Baron Cohen’s other inventions, is meant to remain somewhat objectionable to befriend so many racists. Yet Baron Cohen—one of eight co-writers, not to mention the dozens of others who likely pitched jokes and are thanked in the credits—softens the misogynistic Borat by giving him a burgeoning feminist daughter. It’s quite beautiful, really...

... until it turns out he’s simply letting Bakalova go in for the kill this time, with Tutar using her feminism to become a state-sponsored reporter and honeytrap for Trump’s personal lawyer, Giuliani. Satire may not be necessary (or effective at opening eyes) these days, but it can still serve as a welcome relief valve for those of us who want to see frauds exposing themselves. Wait, Rudy, not like that!

4/5