‘Borat 2’ gets lewd & nude in unfunny political satire
Hail the mask-ini. How could any satire be more outrageous or diabolically satirical than what the clowns in Washington have done in 2020? Well, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” which we are informed was made in association with the Centers for Disease Control, tries to answer that question and mostly fails.
In this sequel to the 2006 hit “mockumentary” “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” Kazakhstan “journalist” Borat Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen, who also cowrote the screenplay) is assigned by his leader to bring a gift to Vice President Mike Pence. The gift is Johnny the Monkey, a simian that is also a porn star in Kazakhstan, where the “Running of the Jew” is a popular event and Holocaust Remembrance Day is a celebration. Remember that in the first film whenever Borat spoke in the Kazakh language, Cohen was really speaking fluent Hebrew.
After being injected with what he is told are “Gypsy tears,” Borat visits his family, including his sons and his “livestock” i.e., his 15-yearold daughter Tutar aka Sandra Jessica Parker Sagdiyev (newcomer Maria Bakalova). Somehow, Tutar gets into the crate in which Johnny the Monkey is transported along with Borat, and she eats the creature en route. Funny?
Once in the U.S., Borat dresses in disguises to buy a “magic calculator” (i.e., cellphone), a $900 cage for his daughter (Are you laughing yet?), tries to get her an abortion at a women’s clinic in the South, claiming to have impregnated her (Hilarious, right?). Borat also successfully orders a cake with the inscription “Jews Will Not Replace Us.” Borat and Tutar also crash a Macon, Ga., debutante ball that will never be the same after witnessing their father-daughter dance. Near the end, which arrives with blessed relief, a disguised Borat pretends to be a country singer at a right-wing militia rally with people armed with assault rifles, and he leads attendees in a racist song about Obama.
Borat, who resembles Groucho Marx if he were from Central Asia instead of New York City, is one of the several fictional alter egos of Cohen. Borat’s shtick is grossly inappropriate, frequently lewd humor combined with gulling the rubes, i.e., making real people think that Borat is also real and that his wildly outlandish statements and behavior are also genuine. Thus, Borat gets two country men with whom he quarantines to discuss how Hillary Clinton drinks the blood of children. “I heard that,” says one of them.
Cohen is this generation’s Peter Sellers. But he is so much better as Abby Hoffman in “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” Cohen’s “Borat” films, including this one, have resulted in lawsuits. The estate of Holocaust survivor Judith Dim Evans is suing the “Borat” producers, even though she greets Borat’s “demon Jew” costume, complete with black wings, with kindness and sympathy.
In one scene, Tutar addresses a meeting of Republican women that ends with a voice saying, “Someone get her an Uber.”
After failing to get to Mike Pence, Borat decides to give his daughter to Rudy Giuliani, who was convinced to be interviewed by Tutar.
The film ends with a giant Karen head armed with “a Walmart AR-15” shooting a giant Dr. Fauci head back in Kazakhstan. Someone get me an Uber.
(“Borat” contains racist and lewd language, nudity and profanity.)