Larry Charles to direct Borat movie

I REALLY didn't care for this movie. I found it a lot more depressing than funny. And I feel bad for the poor newscaster that lost her job because of the weather report scene.

If police were called on SBC/Borat 91 times, why didn't he ever get arrested? Just out of the blue attacking Pamela Anderson in a crowded Virgin Megastore like that and he's being taken away in handcuffs and he gets off scot-free?

that pamela anderson incident was staged dude

yah check out loose change dot com to see how

do ya thing snrub

really?

Dan were you previously unaware that fratboys are stupid or something

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, February 21, 2008 2:48 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Shakey were you aware that shut the fuck up

― HI DERE, Thursday, February 21, 2008 2:49 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Jason Woliner to direct Borat moviefilm, surprise drop during Trump / Biden debate

Tbh it's always irked me that SBC didn't simply invent a country of origin for the character.

yeah, would have been better to have a Molvanîa or Syldavia style fake country from the jump - or even to rebrand with the first film

new movie is way more hilair than cringe though, kept being bummed that I couldn't see it in a full theatre, or that Morbs would yell at me for posting that it is hilair

I thought it had its moments, chuckled once or twice. Points for doubling down on sheer audacity (debutante ball, Holocaust survivors), I guess. I liked the last five minutes best.

There were a couple of amazing lol moments but overall felt like they didn't get enough secret footage and had too create too much "story".

Giuliani footage was definitely creepy even if somewhat contrived.

yeah otm re:secret footage and story. agree that this had some laughs but felt like neither fish nor fowl. I would have preferred if it was all hidden cam/prank stuff (even if didnt all hold together with a coherent story), or if they just went all-in on making a narrative film that didnt interact with the 'real' world at all - most of the laughs for me were all from lines and bits during the 'story' parts anyway. the reality-doc conceit seems to have outlived its usefulness.

i thought the actress playing his daughter was really good, funnier than him most of the time in their scenes together tbh. (on that note, giuliani obviously just tucking in his shirt but w/e, still a dirtymind creep in that scene.)

By the way, any guess what the set up pitch to hang with the Qanon dudes could have been, to explain the cameras? Those guys seemed too good to be true.

p sure they were actors - it's not plausible that they'd take in a complete stranger AND a film crew during the pandemic, especially for five days.

I think the story element is key to this*. He seems to have only been motivated to make another Borat in order to be about the intersection of Trumpism / QAnon / child trafficking / sexual exploitation by male power structures, not because he had a strong motivation to use the character for a bunch of unconnected prank sketches. Nearly every setpiece runs on those themes, and most of them lead to another sequence, instead of being lightly strung together with B-roll of his car driving (or w/e it was in the first one?).




*first movie credited four w/ screenplay, three of those +1 on story, and 8 longtime comedy writers get "thanks" for, presumably, punch-up or breaking story in a writers' room. new one has the same four on screenplay, plus another four on screenplay, three of those +1 on story, and at least 31 notable comedy writers, many of whom are major studio directors or TV showrunners, in the "thanks."

the intersection of Trumpism / QAnon / child trafficking / sexual exploitation by male power structures

In some ways it is (ironically) kind of subtle about this, imo. For example, it takes plenty of shots at Trump, but they're almost always fleeting or indirect by way of those themes you underscored. Which is to say, it's kind of a bait and switch, in that Trump looms over the whole thing (like everything) so you think he's the ultimate target, but it's not really about Trump. In that sense it's probably prescient, and certainly ahead of the curve, in illustrating what will surely be the enduring, pervasive problem of Trumpism itself, even when the man himself is gone.

The thing I mentioned about the QAnon guys being too good to be true, it really would have been great if they *were* real (assuming they aren't). I don't remember much about the first movie, but I do remember it showing, however unintentionally, that ignorant or uneducated or horrible people in the end can still be generous, friendly, patient and polite even in the face of Cohen's exploitation of said characteristics for laughs. In this one, you get the babysitter and the Holocaust survivors as moral anchors, and also the hapless but patient guys at the cell phone place and the FAX station. Could he really have found an equivalent kindness or acceptance among the armed right wing loonies, or is the level of anger and distrust too great? I have no idea. Certainly the All Gas, No Brakes guy is kind of doing his own Borat in that atmosphere, but he's threatened all the time in his bits, iirc.

Incidentally, now I'm wondering who else must/might have been "in on it." Certainly after the fact, since there weren't many blurred faces. But the babysitter ... was she a set up? I wish not, but same thing, how did they explain the cameras?

My favorite joke, by the way, was one that was off camera, when that person had to count out $20,000 in small bills.

this didn't do much for me

My wife kept asking about the cameras and my assumption is that the cameras are so small in 2020 that they were hidden. Is that a dumb assumption given the quality of the footage?

Regardless, the more I thought about this the less I liked it. It's only strength is in showing the regressive elements (Q, anti-semitism, anti-science, etc.) lying barely below American conservatism, which isn't much of a strength given you can just read Trump's twitter feed instead. And yes, AGNB does this straighter, better, with more humor and humanity.

the whole thing of the first one was seeing mask off racism in America, which...uh... isn't exactly novel these days

i was going to watch this but apparently it's only available to amazon prime members?

I won't see this as I dislike the reactionary comedian sasha baron cohen and his racist character borat but sic's description sounds like they better realised the part that really sunk the first film for me (aside from just not finding it that funny, after the insane 'most hilarious film ever made, you will throw up your spleen with mirth' critical hyperbole) - the plausible deniability irony cloak relies so much on the ambush comedy aspect but the biggest chunk is the story part so the audience is mainly laughing at *extremely brown guy voice* maaaa waaf lol I'm a barbaric Asian who hates women and Jews wawaweewa but fyi there is no racial aspect to this please never look up the demographics of Kazakhstan on wikipedia yeah baby yeah

Borat is a racist depiction?

Speaking of which, there were the usual specific warnings under the rating as the movie started, and they included "Sexuality, drug use, foul language, nudity, blackface." Was there drug use? Was there blackface?

buddy

I meant literally, as it's (still too) commonly depicted. Oh, wait, there's the picture of Trudeau! That's why the warning is there.

The blackface was the Justin Trudeau picture.

wins otm

I mean clearly there is a US/UK divide here given the confused face ppl are making when we bring this up, but if you look at the thread ‘borat upsetting people’ this isn’t new. Can’t think of a single reason Americans might have a blind spot here obv

Fun fact also, Cohen isn’t American he’s welsh

Welsh/Israeli, born in London.

who thought he was American?

Got me.

Incidentally, while I have never been to Kazakhstan, I *have* been to Uzbekistan, which has I think somewhat similar demographics to Kazakhstan, and he (predictably) does not really look or sound like anyone I met there at all. He does, however, kind of remind me of the folks I met in Albania, who were among the nicest, friendliest, most welcoming people I've met anywhere. I never thought of his depiction as being specific enough to be racist, though it is a generally, generically offensive ethnic/foreigner/other stereotype. Like Balki in "Perfect Strangers."

Nobody thinks he’s American just stressing the point that Cohen will not at all be unaware of the context through which we view these things. And also like, having contempt for racist American “white trash” and also for the backwards inhabitants of a central Asian country, these are not at all difficult positions for an oxbridge Brit to hold simultaneously

The general, generic specific country of Kazakhstan

um....Balki was a stereotype

One of these days I’ll let this board in to the problem with apu

xpost Balki was totally a stereotype! But a generic, generally offensive one. I think ostensibly he was from a fictional place in Greece? But there was absolutely nothing Greek about him. Whereas Apu is a very specific caricature of a very specific ethnicity. I suspect Sacha Baron Cohen picked Kazakhstan because most people know absolutely nothing about Kazakhstan, so any caricature would do.

I don't know, they're all offensive. That's the whole point.

phew!

seems relevant:

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20161028-what-kazakhstan-really-thought-of-borat

I had never read this before and what the fuck

The isolated Romanian village of Glod had been picked to stand in for Borat’s home town – and Borat’s ‘neighbours’ are actually Roma, the people who Borat derides as “gypsies” throughout the rest of the movie.

i would say about 70% of new movie...

... is nice

xpost Good article, thanks.

An interesting and germane anecdote for the thread. My daughter and I watched "Blazing Saddles" a few weeks ago. Obviously the intent of that movie *is* to offend, it's sort of the grandaddy of that sort of comedy. But when Mel Brooks showed up as a Yiddish-speaking Native American, that's where my daughter flat out said "that's inappropriate, it's cultural appropriation." I found it interesting that *that* was the one moment of being intentionally offensive that she found unforgivably offensive. I tried to contextualize it, the ridiculousness of the "Native Americans" clearly the Jews, with Brooks going full broad Catskills in Yiddish, but she wasn't quite buying it. Don't entirely know what to think of that, but good for her for being so aware as a teen.

And yet, we've been watching some Arrested Development, which I'd never regularly watched, and I am absolutely shocked at the persistent degree of cringe ironic racism, but my daughter hasn't said anything yet.

See also:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/nov/15/news

2xp

xpost yeah, the ironic racism is like a relic at this point

Excerpt from my L*tt*rb*xd review:

A lost transmission from the Mind of Mencia era to our strange new world. Just tonally different than, like, every piece of comedy made in the last half decade. Like hearing a new Pussycat Dolls song or something.

Nobody thinks he’s American just stressing the point that Cohen will not at all be unaware of the context through which we view these things. And also like, having contempt for racist American “white trash” and also for the backwards inhabitants of a central Asian country, these are not at all difficult positions for an oxbridge Brit to hold simultaneously

― Gab B. Nebsit (wins), Saturday, 24 October 2020 15:21 (forty-five minutes ago) link

Otm. ‘Borat’ is contemptible.

xpost yeah, the ironic racism is like a relic at this point

Excerpt from my L*tt*rb*xd review:

A lost transmission from the Mind of Mencia era to our strange new world. Just tonally different than, like, every piece of comedy made in the last half decade. Like hearing a new Pussycat Dolls song or something.

South Park actually had a really good reckoning with City Wok guy a few seasons ago

lol good for them. Did they decide herro egg flied lice was good or bad in the end

I wish I could find the clip online, it's p great. Season 19, ep 3 if you're bored

Not gonna look that up so I can only imagine what conclusion they draw after much soul searching, given our conclusion 5 minutes ago that racism is bad

I mean clearly there is a US/UK divide here

My God, yes, I can't believe in 2020 anyone's giving this loathsome arsehole any credit whatsoever. By the way, he isn't "Welsh/Israeli", he's English, just another privileged public school/Oxbridge twat of the type people in the UK are only too familiar with. Lest we forget:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/mar/17/punching-down-sacha-baron-cohen-and-working-class-cinema