The Borat of the Bush years perfectly mirrored the political moment. The scene feels almost prophetic about the Trump era, and the way these ideas bled into mainstream discourse after being allowed to fester for so long. Bush “ the blood of every single man, woman, and child in Iraq.” A group of drunk fraternity brothers who pick up Borat in their RV speak openly about their disdain for women and Jews, and express their desire to bring back slavery. A rodeo organizer breaks into an Islamophobic rant, and agrees with Borat (on camera, no less) that gay people should be executed, while the crowd cheers along when Borat talks about George W. But the question of what America would let slide in 2006 is ultimately relevant for what’s permissible in 2020.įor every scene in the first Borat that hasn’t aged well - like Borat harassing random bystanders, or his overt misogyny toward a feminist group - there are just as many that have become even more chilling in light of America’s far-right pivot in recent years. Perhaps they don’t wish to be confrontational. Borat celebrates the death of his wife Oxana and talks about killing Romani people with his car, and the folks around him largely go with the flow. The film’s key focus was what Americans were and were not willing to politely excuse. The moment she shows up, the hosts’ patience goes straight out of the window. But the line they draw, instantly and collectively, is the presence of a Black sex worker, Luenell (one of the film’s only hired actors). The white dinner-party hosts put up with a hell of a lot, from Borat inadvertently insulting them to him retreating to the bathroom, then bringing his own poop back to the dinner table in a plastic bag. These small details don’t change the meanings of the encounters - the unsuspecting old shopkeeper is still out about $400 after Borat’s clumsy mishap - but coupled with the specific nerves Cohen is prodding, they paint a clearer picture of the limits of American civility, which the film hoped to expose. For instance, the scene where Borat attempts to make polite conversation at a fancy Mississippi dinner party takes place at an address on Secession Drive, while many of the curios he “accidentally” breaks at an antique store bear Confederate symbols. A re-watch might even reveal layers that some viewers might’ve missed. At the time, Cohen had no singular target for his pranks, other than the broad strokes of “American culture.” However, in its totality, the landmark mockumentary holds up better than most comedies of its era. Is it as good as the original? That’s hard to answer definitively, but the 2006 film is worth revisiting before watching the 2020 sequel (directed by Jason Woliner of Nathan For You), because it’s impossible for the two films not to be in conversation with each other.ĭirected by Larry Charles, the original Borat - or Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan - has a few segments that haven’t aged well, as expected from such a provocative film. And yet the results this time differ wildly, because the film takes a new approach to a wildly different America. It uses an American road trip as a pretext for ludicrous real-world interviews and improvised scenarios, where Cohen’s racist, sexist, anti-Semitic caricature pushes people’s buttons. On its surface, it’s exactly what the first Borat conditioned Cohen fans to expect. for an even more outrageous film, one that not only embarrasses at least one major politician - “ Great success!” - but manages to be surprisingly touching and optimistic along the way. With an actress in tow playing Borat’s teenage daughter, Cohen makes his way back to a more turbulent U.S. That said, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is also one of the most uproariously funny American comedies in an ungodly long time. Movie-watching is more splintered than it once was, and the sequel just doesn’t have the first film’s novelty, which allowed some of its lines and moments to become iconic to the point of oversaturation. The film’s follow-up, now streaming on Amazon Prime, likely won’t have the same staying power. Borat Sagdiyev - a fictitious Kazakh reporter who British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen used to trap interviewees into letting their guards down - became globally recognizable and instantly quotable, a status only Marvel characters seem to achieve nowadays. The original 2006 Borat felt like the last great comedy film to permeate the broader culture. Then again, 2020 has hardly been the realm of the expected. High-profile projects created in secret, like Beyoncé’s 2013 self-titled album, don’t usually involve unscripted scenarios in full view of an unsuspecting public, let alone in view of public figures. A few months ago, the idea of a Borat sequel releasing days before America’s presidential election seemed unthinkable.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |