Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat Margaret Sagdiyev

Maria Bakalova as Tutar Sagdiyev, Borat’s teenage daughter,

Dani Popescu as Premier Nursultan Nazarbayev, a fictionalized version of the ruler of Kazakhstan

Luenell as Luenell, the prostitute who marries Borat at the end of the first film

Tom Hanks as himself

Manuel Vieru as Dr. Yamak (Gypsy Tears)

Miroslav Tolj as Nursultan Tulyakbay

Alin Popa as HueyLewis / Jeffrey Epstein Sagdiyev, Borat’s son

Ion Gheorghe as Bilak Sagdiyev, Borat’s son

Nicolae Gheorghe as Biram Sagdiyev, Borat’s son

Marcela Codrea as a Kuczek villager

Luca Nelu as a Kuczek villager

Nicoleta Ciobanu as Babuska

Mike Pence and Rudy Giuliani appear as themselves.

Not-so-innocent bystanders in the film include salesperson and “Minister of Technology” Brian, Instagram influencer and sugar baby Macy Chanel, crisis pregnancy center owner Pastor Jonathan Bright, debutante coach Dr. Jean Sheffield, plastic surgeon Dr. Charles Wallace, professional babysitter Jeanise Jones, barbershop patron Alan “Randy” Knight, the Hillsborough Republican Women’s Club, and QAnon believers Jerry Holleman and Jim Russell, while Holocaust survivor Judith Dim Evans appears with her permission.

Borat 2 is every bit as funny as the original film, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. As with the first film, half the fun is trying to figure out who is being cozened in Candid Camera Alan Funt-type scams, and who is in on the gag. With some of them there is little doubt—the MAGA crowd at the Washington State rally who are cozened into chanting “With Doctor Fauci what do we do? Inject him with the Wuhan flu!” (As in the first movie, some of the funniest bits involve manipulating right wing crowds into saying hideously inappropriate things). Others, such as Brian the helpful electronics tech who introduces Borat to the new magical calculators sweeping America, or the UPS store clerk who help Borat exchange alarming faxes with the fearless leader of home country, or the salesman at the farm and livestock store who sells Borat a cage to keep his daughter, Tutar, in, are probably not aware of the script, and have to know something is up, and are going along with it while they try to puzzle it out. The director of the crisis pregnancy center who tries to convince Borat and his daughter not to get rid of the baby Borat has put in the alleged 15 year old is utterly clueless, and thus hilarious. (The ‘baby’ is a small plastic decoration off a cup cake that Tutar has accidentally swallowed). The women’s GOP club to whom Tutar vouchsafes the joys of masturbation and urges them “to touch your vagines” is probably caught unawares.

Antisemitism is a big part of the schtick. At one point, Tutar learns from that great source of Truth, Facebook, that the Holocaust was a hoax. Borat is crushed by the news, since the murder of six million Jews is a great source of pride in his society and a major part of his cultural identity. (Cohen is Jewish so he can get away with this shit. Kids, don’t try this at home. It will only end in tears.)

In one scene, Borat slips into a synagogue dressed as a horrible parody of Shylock, complete with nose, bat wings and a sack of money, and meets with a Holocaust survivor, Judith Dim Evans, and a friend. Evans was a holocaust survivor (she died shortly after the film was made) and her estate sued, claiming Cohen was mocking her and the holocaust). It was revealed that Cohen had made his true identity and purpose of the scene known to Evans, who then whole-heartedly played along in what is the most genuinely affecting scene in the movie.

Cohen really did go into CPAC in a KKK robe, which concealed a fat suit, blue business suit, red tie, and Donald Trump mask, and as Donald Trump, tried to gift his daughter to Mike Pence. He knew from reports that Pence did not trust himself to be alone with any women other than his wife, and therefore must be a real pussy hound who would rape his daughter in a most gratifying manner.

Then there’s Rudy Giuliani. A lot of people think that he was completely scammed, and was, in fact, trying very clumsily to seduce a 15 year old girl. I’m no fan of his, but I don’t believe it for an instant.

For one thing, the encounter was being openly filmed. At one point, Cohen, dressed in his “Cowboy Sam” outfit and affecting a ludicrous Texanistan accent, interrupts the two to complain that the sound equipment is malfunctioning.

Giuliani may or may not have realized he was in a Cohen film, but he clearly smelled the gag, and played along. Whatever else I might think of Giuliani, he has a sharp, self-aware sense of humor, and unlike some of the others who got caught in Alan Funt situations such as Donald Trumps senior and junior, he didn’t sue to have the material blocked. Even as he puts on his sourest and most baffled expression as he denies planning to rape a minor, I bet he’s secretly grinning from ear to ear, a creepy sight in itself. It’s his redemptive feature.

The movie is funny, often brilliantly funny. You never know when the people around him will figure out that they are being scammed and walk away in disgust like the Mounties in the “I’m a Lumberjack” skit. And I promise you will never be able to unsee the Kazakhstan Fertility Dance, performed for a horrified debutante society.

Now on Amazon Prime.