November 1, 2020
BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM (2020)
Currently on Amazon Prime Video.
After the events of the first film, Borat Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen) returned to Kazakhstan in shame and was sent to languish in prison. Fourteen years later, Borat was released to fulfill a mission to bring a gift of a Kazakh celebrity monkey to US Vice President Michael Pence in order to restore good relations between the two countries. However, when he got to the US, stowed away inside the monkey's crate was his 14 year-old daughter Tutar (Maria Bakalova) instead. So, Borat had to get Tutar ready to become a worthy gift to Pence.
Just like the first film, this sequel also had Borat do and say unspeakably shameful things with typical ordinary American citizens, this time with his daughter Tutar in tow. With the naive and culturally-misinformed character of Tutar there, the main focus of this film was for upholding women's rights. However, Cohen delivered that message in the bold, outrageous and insulting gags and pranks ever caught on film, yet somehow still coming across as incisive social commentary, yet still with his sense of dark humor very much intact.
I actually liked the comedy in this one better than the first one, maybe because I am more aware of Cohen's ironic style of comedy now. There are very timely issues tackled here, with the Coronavirus pandemic (that maskini!), as well as the current POTUS himself and his staunch Republican supporters. Cohen's absurdist writing and performance was sharp and on-point, despite being so crass on the surface. The genuine (?) reactions of the common folk or even politicians (notably Rudy Giuliani) were quite uncomfortably revealing. 7/10
BORAT (2006)
Currently on Netflix.
Upon orders of the Kazakh Ministry of Information, reporter Borat Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen) was sent to the USA with producer Azamat Bagatov (Ken Davitian) to film a documentary to gain "cultural learnings of America to benefit his home country. When he was in NYC, he caught an episode of "Baywatch" on television and became obsessed with Pamela Anderson. When he learned that his wife Oksana had been killed by a bear, he went on a cross-country road trip from New York to California on a quest to make Anderson his wife.
This was a very strange, shocking, graphic, offensive movie. I still cannot imagine how was it possible for an American production able to malign a real country's name and people like this? Yet, there are various parts that are really very funny. I will not describe very specific parts in detail lest they lose their shock value, which is what this movie is about. If we are to believe that all of these are actual reactions of real American people, then the picture painted is really an eye-opener and a mirror for Americans.
I found the first half quite funny, from Borat's description of life in his hometown Kuzcek (that mankini!), to his interviews with the humor coach, the feminists, the African-American congressman (who made Borat realize who those men he invited into his room were), the etiquette coach and his Southern dinner. The more squirmy uncomfortable parts occur in the second half, such when he sang the "Kazakh" national anthem in a Texas rodeo, the destructive antique shop scene, the nude wrestling scene that went on too long, the Christian prayer rally with the politicians, and that RV scene with drunken frat boys. 6/10
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