Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

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🎙️ EPISODE 300: 01.24.2021 *Review starts @ ~ 1:43:00 For a film that is so much more overtly political than its legendary predecessor, it almost felt like it don't go far enough, as if it was hedging against some mainstream backlash which would prevent it from reaching GOD LEVEL MEME STATUS once again. If the first movie is about American ugliness and ignorance, then the second one is a dissection of what that can lead to (Trump, etc.). But there's a reason Trump is nearly impossible to skewer or parody. Top to bottom, everything about the man and his movement is so insanely stupid, what joke is ever going to top how he looks and what he says and how he says it. He's essentially a Borat level character come to life; everything he does is completely hilarious (and terrifying) because he's NOT acting. But if there was ever someone who could successfully pick apart this man, it would be Sacha Baron Cohen, right?

It's impossible to assess this movie outside of the pandemic as well. The COVID outbreak so clearly threw a wrench at the story they were trying to tell and the film they wound up making. It's a big 'What If'–how and what that OTHER movie would've looked like. But ultimately, this is what we got and, frankly, it didn't live up to the hype.

Of the three biggest WOW moments pushed out into the media in advance of its release, two (The CPAC Trump suit and the Anti-Government singalong/rally) came across as meh onscreen, and the other and biggest (Rudy Giuliani and his hands down his pants) was underwhelming and, tbqh, manipulative. For the record, I don't give a shit about Rudy G.; he's a gross monster who deserves all of the world's scorn and bad things before and after appearing in a Borat movie. And while I would never say he cones off as 'good' here (or even 'normal' or 'respectable' or 'slightly human'), the idea that he was 100% fluffing himself for a teenage blowjob is a trick and/or invention. And that's fine! Fuck him. But using that moment as the A-Number-Uno advertising tentpole is kinda gross. (As is/was the fact that they signed a huge deal with Amazon fucking Prime for this release; if your goal down deep is, in theory, to cure the evils of the world through satire, I have some bad news about your distributor and benefactor! Whoops.)

Yet still, Sacha Baron Cohen IS a comic genius. And this movie delivers on the laffz here and there. Seeing Borat 1 in the theaters was an experience the likes of which we're all unlikely to have again. I am fairly certain I've never been apart of a crowd more boisterously and uninhibitedly LOL'ing in unison like that. And given that movie theaters ostensibly CEASE TO EXIST at this time, that's a feat that was very literally impossible to repeat let alone top going in. So, given that + the fact that no one was looking out for a Borat sequel in 2020, you can throw all expectations out the window. Let this movie stand on its own. And when you do that, you're left with a mixed bag.

It's mid-November now and Donald Trump has lost the election (although he might be sticking around to either attempt a coup or sneak out in a UHaul when they come to change the furniture–could go either way!). The Bogeyman of Ignorance is, for all intents and purposes, gone. But the pandemic rages and society faces many of the same problems as before... and comedy remains as hard to deliver as its ever been. There is a correlation between those two things. We can laugh at Rudy Giuliani because he's a fool who put himself in a queasy situation that was later heavily edited for supposed comedic effect or we can laugh at Rudy Giuliani because of Four Seasons Total Landscaping. AGAIN, how do you skewer these people whose very existence is an unending joke? I have no idea. But I appreciate Sacha Baron Cohen for trying.

*** part of THE BIG EPISODE 300 EXTRAVAGANZA wherein I reviewed 36 movies, mostly live reads of critiques I wrote between 2009-2012. But this one was one of 6 that I watched and wrote recently, OK??. ***

THE 36 MOVIES REVIEWED DURING EPISODE 300

30 MINUTES OR LESS • ALEX BAG: UNTITLED FALL '95 • AWAY WE GO • BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD • BEING ELMO • BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM • THE BROTHERS SOLOMON • A BUCKET OF BLOOD •
THE CAMPAIGN • THE CENTER OF THE WORLD • CHRISTMAS ON MARS • THE CHRISTMAS TREE • CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE. • (500) DAYS OF SUMMER • A FIELD IN ENGLAND • FUNNY PEOPLE • GET HIM TO THE GREEK • GIGANTIC (A TALE OF TWO JOHNS) • INCEPTION • JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME • LEAVE NO TRACE • MAN ON WIRE • MIDNIGHT IN PARIS • MONEYBALL • MOON • MUTUAL APPRECIATION • POM WONDERFUL PRESENTS: THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD • RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES • SLEEPWALK WITH ME • SOME DRINKING IMPLIED • TIM AND ERIC'S BILLION DOLLAR MOVIE • TRANSIT • TO ROME WITH LOVE • THE WICKER MAN • WINTER'S BONE • YOUTH IN REVOLT

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 300L - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 300N ⫸

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