Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

Sacha Baron Cohen in character as Borat, at the Cologne premiere of the first film in 2006. Baron Cohen was initially hesitant to make a sequel, killing off his character in 2007 and only resurrecting him in 2018 for voting ads.

Rupert Murdoch announced in early February 2007 that Baron Cohen had signed on to do another Borat film with 20th Century Fox, distributor of the first film.[14] Baron Cohen later claimed that Borat was to be discontinued, as he was now too well known to avoid detection as he did in the film and on Da Ali G Show.[15] A spokesman for Fox later stated that it was too early to begin planning such a film, although they were open to the idea.[16] In 2014, he brought back Borat for the FXX series Ali G: Rezurection, a compilation of the sketches from Da Ali G Show with new footage.[17] He also briefly appeared as Borat in December 2015 on an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! to promote the film Grimsby[18] and again in November 2018 to encourage Americans to vote in that year's midterm elections.[19] In the two years leading up to the release, the film's star became more concerned about being politically active, giving speeches and interviews in-person to combat racism; he insisted on releasing the film immediately before the 2020 presidential election to provoke alarm among Americans about a slide into illiberal democracy.[20]

Like several of Sacha Baron Cohen's films, the score is composed by his brother Erran Baron Cohen, in addition to other original recordings by Romanian Balkan band Fanfare Ciocărlia and their version of "Just the Two of Us"; Canadian roots musician Adrian Raso performing "Urn St. Tavern".[21]

Mike Pence at the 2020 American Conservative Union CPAC, shortly before Baron Cohen interrupted his speech.

Filming did not begin until Tutar was cast; Bakalova was chosen for the role among 600 actresses who auditioned.[22] She initially sent in a tape of her acting for an unnamed Hollywood movie she suspected may have been a human trafficking scam, but she ended up going to London to rehearse with Baron Cohen, convincing her that this was a real opportunity.[23] Ken Davitian, who portrayed Azamat Bagatov in the first Borat, was offered the opportunity to reprise his role, but did not sign on because the producers would not tell him that the film was a Borat sequel.[24] An early prank filmed in late 2019 involved a farcical interview with Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller,[11] followed by a trip to an Arlington, Texas driving range;[25] the scenes were cut from the film but appear in the trailer.[26] In February 2020, Baron Cohen was spotted dressed up as Donald Trump, interrupting the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), although his true identity was not revealed at the time.[27][28][29]

That same month, Baron Cohen traveled to Macon, Georgia, to trick attendees of a fake debutante ball,[30] telling the organizers at the Johnston–Felton–Hay House that he was filming a coming-of-age story.[31] He was briefly pulled over by a police officer for having Bakalova riding on the roof of his vehicle; body cam footage clearly shows he was identified as himself the comedian, as opposed to his character.[32] The crew also attended Marietta-based Temple Kol Emeth to film the scenes with Evans.[8] The production made at least two visits to upstate South Carolina to film at a bakery, crisis pregnancy center, and Halloween supply store.[33] On June 27, 2020, Cohen performed pranks at a gun rally in Olympia, Washington,[34] leading attendees to sing along with racist lyrics to an original song,[35] and interviewed members of the crowd.[36] When demonstrators picketing the rally recognized Baron Cohen and began laughing, the crowd and organizers realized they were being pranked and quickly turned violent, but were slowed from storming the stage as security had been hired by the Borat team. Eventually, Baron Cohen and his crew were forced to flee in a private ambulance, with Baron Cohen having to physically hold the door shut as members of the crowd tried to break in.[37] News media quickly learned about the prank but speculated it was for a new season of Who Is America?[35]

The following month, he was spotted in Los Angeles dressed as Borat and filming, leading to speculation from the public that Baron Cohen's next project was a Borat sequel.[38] On two days of filming Baron Cohen was required to wear a bulletproof vest due to the possible threats of the scene.[39]

In early September 2020, rumors began to circulate claiming that the film was completely shot, assembled, and screened for film industry executives;[40] the title was originally leaked as Borat 2: Great Success and then Borat: Gift of Pornographic Monkey to Vice Premiere Mikhael Pence to Make Benefit Recently Diminished Nation of Kazakhstan, where the latter was used as one of the title cards. On September 20, a prank involving Bakalova infiltrating the White House and being interviewed by Chanel Rion of One America News Network was filmed but cut from the final release.[41] The village sequences set in Kazakhstan were shot in Romania (specifically the commune of Valea Albeștiului in Albești, Mureș County), but not the same village as the previous film after negative feedback from the villagers. Romanian actors were hired for a few parts.[42]

The film was shot on 72 different cameras, including both high-end cinema cameras and smartphones. The production utilized simple codecs to mimic the look of the original movie. The Arri Amira and Alexa Mini were the A, B, and C cameras, accompanied by lesser cameras for hidden, robotic, and low profile applications, including iPhones.[43] Titmouse, Inc. produced animation services.[44]

In the two weeks leading up to the film release, Amazon spent $20.4 million on marketing.[48]

Baron Cohen joined social media outlets Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter in-character as Borat to comment on American politics in the run-up to the election and promote the film release,[49] including congratulating Donald Trump for winning the first of the 2020 United States presidential debates before the event began[50] and starting a "feud" with Ariana Grande[51] for stealing a cut-out of Borat installed at a drive-in theater.[52] The social media push also involved a Twitch stream playing video games with DrLupo[53] and meeting YouTube influencers.[54] He also made a return to Jimmy Kimmel Live! in character a few days before the film's release.[55]

Amazon Prime UK promoted the film by projecting an image of Borat in an extremely small mankini resembling a face mask on the side of several historic sites in Scotland.[56] In Australia's Bondi Beach, 40 Borat look-alikes descended onto the sands to do a yoga class in the "maskini" gear, accompanied by a large statue.[57] During the second presidential debate, Baron Cohen hosted a watch party to debut the film in-character, followed by an afterparty made up of dance music and questions from fans via a live chat.[58] A further stunt involved a large inflatable Borat floating in a barge along the Toronto waterfront[59] and in front of London's Palace of Westminster.[60] The Cerne Abbas Giant was also defaced with a mask and the slogan "WEAR MASK. SAVE LIVE".[61]

Amazon additionally collaborated with YouTube pranksters to trick Stephen Bear, Jimmy Carr, Perrie Edwards, David Spade, David Walliams, and Ann Widdecombe into a false audition for a third Borat film, convincing them to act as a Kazakhstani ambassador.[62] The company also modified their Alexa service to give potato news from Borat.[63]

Maria Bakalova's performance garnered widespread critical acclaim and earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 68 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[64] On Rotten Tomatoes, 85% of 306 critics positively reviewed the film, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm proves Sacha Baron Cohen's comedic creation remains a sharp tool for exposing the most misguided—or outright repugnant—corners of American culture."[65] Most publications said the film received generally positive reviews,[66][67][68][69] though the BBC and Reuters summed up the critical consensus as "mixed".[70][71]

Eric Kohn of IndieWire gave the film an A− and wrote: "Fourteen years after his last romp, Borat isn't exactly woke, but his time has come: This searing brand of humor has never felt more essential. Blending activism with entertainment, Baron Cohen's best movie to date gives us new reasons to be afraid of the world, but also permission to laugh at it."[72] Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars and wrote: "Fourteen years after Kazakhstan journalist Borat came to America to make a documentary about our great nation, he's back in the USA—older, dumber, far more famous and arguably even more politically incorrect and offensively funny than he was in 2006."[73]

In The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw gave the film three out of five stars, saying "there are still some real laughs and pointed political moments" but that it "overstays its welcome".[74] Jesse Hassenger of The A.V. Club gave the film a B− and called it "frequently funny and occasionally pointed" but "also another instance where doing things as they've always been done no longer feels like quite enough".[75] Similarly, Devika Girish of The New York Times notes how the sequel is not as shocking or insightful as the first film, summing up, "[the] elaborate ruses of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm left me neither entertained nor enraged, but simply resigned".[76]

In a review for The Daily Telegraph, Robbie Collin awarded the film two of five stars, calling the film "despairingly threadbare" and "a string of half-formed, recycled and disjointed pranks you suspect wouldn't have survived the quality-control process on the original, effortfully connected post hoc by largely uninspired scripted scenes."[77] Longtime Chicago Tribune film columnist Michael Philips gave the film two stars, calling the sequel "ruder" and "more sentimental" than its predecessor. Phillips summarized his reaction as having "laughed at a good deal of the movie, but a good deal more of it left [him] with (Cohen's [sic] intention, probably) the taste of ashes in the mouth".[78] Alonso Duralde of The Wrap negatively reviewed the movie, believing it "valiantly fails to resuscitate the satire corpse". Duralde, a self-avowed "superfan" of the first film, writes that "the sequel might (in, one hopes, a happier future) be hilarious in retrospect, but at the moment, it's a mostly cringe-worthy experience".[79]

Unlike the reception of the first Borat movie, which was denounced by the Kazakh state as a libellous smear against the people of Kazakhstan,[91] and resulted in threatened legal action against Cohen and his distributors, the release of the sequel received a more mixed reception. The Kazakh American Association denounced the film for promoting racism, cultural appropriation and xenophobia.[92] On the other hand, the tourism board of Kazakhstan has appropriated a key catchphrase, "very nice", to promote the advantages of visiting Kazakhstan, capitalizing on the increased public interest in Kazakhstan as a result of the first film.[92]

The actions of President Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani in the film incited controversy.

Rudy Giuliani was criticized for his actions in a scene in which he appears to slide his hand into the top of his trousers in front of actress Maria Bakalova, who is impersonating a journalist. Following an interview in a hotel room, the pair retreat to the bedroom, where Giuliani's voice is heard (facing away from the camera) asking for an address and phone number. After Bakalova removes his microphone, thus untucking his shirt, Giuliani lies back on the bed and tucks his shirt back in. Baron Cohen then bursts into the room exclaiming "She 15! She too old for you!"[74][93] Giuliani denied allegations of impropriety, claiming that the allegations were a smear for Giuliani's Hunter Biden laptop controversy despite the scene having been filmed months before the controversy occurred.[94]

Controversy over what happened in the scene led Baron Cohen to record a brief clip as Borat regarding Giuliani.[95] In an out of character interview, Baron Cohen remarked, "Heaven knows what he's done with other female journalists in hotel rooms," and stood by the accuracy of the scene: "It is what it is. He did what he did."[96] While on the campaign trail, Donald Trump called Baron Cohen unfunny and "a creep";[97] Baron Cohen subsequently thanked him for the free publicity, saying that he "did not find President Trump funny either".[98] The debate followed Giuliani in subsequent media appearances, such as when Fox News anchor Kennedy confronted him about the scene as well as the veracity of the Biden emails.[99] Baron Cohen continued the feud by mocking Giuliani's Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference[100] and rescinding an earlier job offer to Trump for being a loser in the 2020 United States presidential election.[101]

The film's creators were sued for fraud after including an interview with Holocaust survivor Judith Dim Evans. Evans died before the film's release, but her heirs brought the lawsuit alleging that she did not consent to the commercial use of her likeness in the film.[103][104] Baron Cohen—who dedicated the film to her memory—claimed that he broke character to address Evans's concerns about Borat's anti-Semitic comments, revealing the satirical nature of the piece.[105] The lawsuit was dismissed on October 26.[106]

The New York Post reported that babysitter Jeanise Jones felt "betrayed" by the filmmakers who told her that she was going to be in a documentary about a young woman being groomed to marry an older man;[107] she did not find out the true nature of the film until the day before it was released.[108] She later disputed that statement, saying that she was not angry at the filmmakers,[109] and that it was her fault for not reading the release papers.[110] When asked if her $3600 payment for her appearance seemed fair, Jones replied that "I can't say it was fair because they knew it was going to be a movie, and I didn't." Acclaiming her as the "moral compass" of the film and mentioning that she was unemployed as a result of COVID layoffs, a GoFundMe campaign started by Jones's pastor raised over $50,000 for her in three days[111] and more than $150,000 by the end of the week.[112][113] Baron Cohen donated $100,000 to her community of Oklahoma City, with funds disbursed by her church.[114] Jones was cast as an angel in a comedy film as a result of her appearance in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.[115] Maria Bakalova revealed in January 2021 that she has kept in touch with Jones.[116]

The character of Borat has been controversial in Kazakhstan,[117] with the original film being censored for a period and Baron Cohen's website blocked in the country. In the lead-up to the sequel, Kazakhs took to Twitter with the hashtag #CancelBorat.[118] An online petition urging the film to be canceled garnered over 100,000 signatures and small protests gathered in front of the American embassy in Almaty the day of the premiere.[119] Kazakhs and Westerners alike renewed criticism that the character uses comedy to "punch down" by picking on the more marginalized Kazakhs by arbitrarily mocking their accents and stereotyping them,[120] and the Kazakh American Association issued a letter alleging that the film promotes "racism, cultural appropriation, and xenophobia";[121] in the lead up to the film awards seasons, they issued a second letter asking organizations to not consider the film.[122] The character has created misperceptions of Kazakhstan.[123] Nevertheless, the national tourism agency Kazakh Tourism capitalized on the renewed international attention the film brought by adopting Borat's catchphrase as its slogan—Kazakhstan. Very Nice!—and produced a number of videos featuring it.[124]

Marketing for the film drew ire from the National Trust for defacing the Cerne Abbas Giant[125] and from Parisian Muslims who objected to posters of the near-nude Borat evidently wearing a ring with "Allah" inscribed on it;[126] the posters were removed.[127]