Skip to main content
Home The New Paper
  • Home
  • News
    • Singapore
    • World
    • Business
    • Views
    • Backstage
    • Others
  • Sports
    • Football
    • Singapore Football
    • Team Singapore
    • School Sports
    • Athletics
    • Basketball
    • Cricket
    • Swimming
    • Tennis
    • Golf
    • Racing
    • Others
  • Entertainment
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV
    • Star Style
    • School of Frock
  • Lifestyle
    • Makan
    • Hed Chef
    • Weets Eats
    • Health
    • Tech
    • Travel
    • Fashion
    • Shopping
    • Biker Boy
    • Celeb Chow
    • Others
  • Racing
  • Your Tip-Offs
  • Read E-Paper
  • Contests
  • Coupon
  • Team

Popular

  • COURT & CRIME
  • Food & Drink
Movies

Movie review: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

Movie review: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Sacha Baron Cohen reprises his iconic moustachioed character in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, but it is his daughter Tutar who steals the spotlight. PHOTO: AMAZON STUDIOS
Jonathan Roberts
Digital Editor
Review
Oct 28, 2020 06:00 am
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • E-mail this article
  • 0 Engagements

A lot has changed since Borat first made audiences cringe in 2006.

The biggest change is in what some people can get away with - and not just in terms of Sacha Baron Cohen's comedy.

Last week, the Rudy Giuliani sting that serves as the crescendo to the mockumentary comedy sequel now showing on Amazon Prime made headlines.

Arguably, 14 years ago, such an incident would have been career-ending.

Now, we have already moved on. Sure, Mr Giuliani comes off as a creep. But we are in a world where such things have no real consequences.

Though the scene does say a lot about Baron Cohen in that he did not let things go any further with US President Donald Trump's lawyer and his co-star - the excellent and fearless Maria Bakalova - before bursting in in character.

Movie review: Music
Movies

Music's from the heart, even if it is tone-deaf

Feb 24, 2021

Related Stories

Movie review: I Care A Lot

After Parasite, Korean movie Minari is talk of Hollywood

Movie review: To All The Boys: Always And Forever

Who knows what would have happened had Mr Giuliani continued tucking in his shirt for just a few seconds more.

SHIFT IN MINDSET

There has also been a shift in mindset when it comes to Baron Cohen.

He is a campaigner and activist who calls out the social media main players for their allowance of hate speech.

He is also dad to a young daughter, and a lot of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm highlights dubious attitudes towards women and their bodies.

This is also a film with a surprising amount of sentiment.

Borat may start regarding his daughter Tutar as the least important livestock, but as he tries to give her to US Vice-President Mike Pence as tribute, the pair start to bond along the way.

The "way" includes entertaining a far-right event, pranking a leading anti-abortionist and making store owners very uncomfortable.

A couple of QAnon types, who seem nice enough until they get into conspiracy theories, do raise a question of how unaware the targets were.

The camera seems too visible for them to not think something is up, and yet everyone is still more than willing to say something shocking.

But in this world, the shocks are where the laughs are.

Borat may be preaching to the choir, but the timing of the film is no accident.

Aside from a brilliant pandemic-enforced pay-off, it also has the message: "Now vote, or you will be execute."

SCORE: 3.5/5


FILM: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

STARRING: Sacha Baron Cohen, Maria Bakalova

DIRECTOR: Jason Woliner

THE SKINNY: After embarrassing Kazakhstan in the 2006 film, Borat Sagdiyev is released from prison 14 years later and sent by his country's government - alongside his teenage daughter Tutar (Bakalova) - to the US to deliver a gift to US Vice-President Mike Pence.

RATING: M18

Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now

Movies

Jonathan Roberts

Digital Editor
jonrob@sph.com.sg
Read articles by Jonathan Roberts
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • E-mail this article
  • Newslink -  Purchase this article for republication

Top Stories this Month

Makansutra: Mad for this moist millennial char kway teow
Makan

Mad for this moist and marvellous char kway teow

Feb 25, 2021
Father on late son’s fiancee: She was like a daughter to me
Singapore

Father on late son's fiancee: She was like a daughter to me

Feb 16, 2021
Wild boar drags woman for a metre in Punggol attack
Singapore

Wild boar drags woman for a metre in Punggol attack

Feb 22, 2021
Home
  • Contests
  • Coupon
  • Team
  • Home
  • News
    • Singapore
    • World
    • Business
    • Views
    • Backstage
    • Others
  • Sports
    • Football
    • Singapore Football
    • Team Singapore
    • School Sports
    • Athletics
    • Basketball
    • Cricket
    • Swimming
    • Tennis
    • Golf
    • Racing
    • Others
  • Entertainment
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV
    • Star Style
    • School of Frock
  • Lifestyle
    • Makan
    • Hed Chef
    • Weets Eats
    • Health
    • Tech
    • Travel
    • Fashion
    • Shopping
    • Biker Boy
    • Celeb Chow
    • Others
  • Racing
  • Your Tip-Offs
  • Read E-Paper
  • Contact TNP
  • About SPH
  • Privacy Statement
  • Data Protection Policy
  • Member Terms & Conditions
  • Website Terms & Conditions
SPH Digital News Copyright © 2021 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Co. Regn No. 198402868E