Let’s get to the question that many are asking out of the way up top: is Borat Subsequent Moviefilm as good as the original? No. It’s certainly not. It isn’t really in the same league. But is that even really a fair question? Borat remains a generational comedy; a beloved favorite that’s held up as a cinematic standard to this day. Sacha Baron Cohen’s 2006 shockumentary is still such a comedic mainstay a decade and a half later that it’s still quoted regularly (who amongst us can muster the courage to say “my wife” not in Borat speak?) and has gone on to spawn an entire subgenre of cringe gotcha comedy, setting the table for the illustrious careers of protégés like Nathan Fielder and Eric Andre. Perhaps the better and more reasonable question then is: is Borat Subsequent Moviefilm a worthy and worthwhile follow-up? I would venture yes. Very much so.

As directed by Jason Woliner, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (I’m only going to write that title once so soak it up) is a very different movie than what Cohen cooked up 14 years ago. With the Borat character instantly recognizable to a majority of Americans, Cohen had to take himself out of the spotlight quite a bit when it comes to interviews, relying on a new character, Borat’s daughter Sandra Jessica Parker (played boldly by Bulgarian newcomer Maria Bakalova, under the pseudonym “Irina Novak”), and more and more ridiculous American-passing disguises.

Another consequence of the character’s fame is that a greater ratio of the film is scripted and the story from Cohen, Anthony Hines, Nina Pedrad, and Dan Swimer puts Borat and his daughter on a collision course with 2020 America but not always with that unpredictable element of third party involvement. That’s not to say that Cohen and Co. don’t manage to lift up the skirt on the US and A’s underbelly every now and then. From debutante balls to pro-life advocates to interviews with prominent Trump allies, Cohen stirs a number of controversial pots, almost always flanked by Bakalova. Together they manage to expose some heinous characters. But that is no longer the primary intent.

Admittedly, I found myself disappointed by the relative lack of Cohen’s unscripted brilliance; his signature command over his interviewees, that rarified ability to get strangers to reveal their darkest side and innermost prejudice even when they know the camera is rolling. Perhaps the problem lies in the fact that this no longer needs to be teased and tricked out of people. You don’t need a snake charmer to summon the American snake. When shouting homophobia, xenophobia, and racism from the rooftops has become a legitimate campaigning prospect in certain areas of the country, the entire tactic is moot. We don’t need Cohen to show us the underbelly anymore, you only need YouTube or a family dinner nowadays.

The past four years have led to our co-workers, friends, peers, uncles, grandparents, and cousins openly revealing their once-concealed prejudices. Opening them up like a sinister chapter book. In terms of common decency, we have devolved past where a man dressed as an ignorant foreign reporter had to trick people into exposing their nasty inner thoughts. It’s indicative of where we are as a nation, where once concealed prejudices have been tempted into the public sphere by Trump’s divisive hate speech. Cohen already revealed just how ugly this gets with his shocking and gut-busting ‘Who is America?’, which regularly teased out the massive divides between 2018 US and A. And though the satire isn’t as sharp here, Cohen takes, for the first time in his career, a moralist stance. With Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, he’s decidedly less interested in pulling us apart and more invested in uniting us under a banner of common decency.

If Borat predicted America’s flirtation with Trumpism a decade early, Subsequent Moviefilm attempts to find the humanity that still exists in a nation thought to be divided to the root. No one would have pegged Cohen for trying to bridge the gap in a Borat sequel but he does here, going so far as to showcase the good within the troubled mindset of “the political enemy”. Where a Cohen from the past could have and would have eviscerated a pair of redneck Q-Anon buddies, here he wants to also paint them as reasonable, supportive, and even kind.

Not all are spared equally and Subsequent Moviefilm will almost certainly lead to at least one very public political reckoning of a close Trump confidante (I literally cannot wait to see things shake out when it comes to one Rudy Guiliani who is caught red-handed). On the Borat bingo card, success is partially measured in political fireworks but, more importantly, this follow-up needed to deliver the cringe and sidesplitting laughs and does both handily. A moment where Cohen dresses in a Trump fat suit to infiltrate the RNC had me in stitches as did a more innocent moment when Cohen becomes a very attentive barber.

Not everything works. Scripted material has never been Cohen’s bread and butter (the less said about The Dictator, the better) which explains why the actual screenplay was written by more people than are on most professional sports teams (there are eight credited writers: Cohen, Peter Baynham, Jena Friedman, Anthony Hines, Lee Kern, Dan Mazer, Erica Rivinoja, and Dan Swimer.) The film meanders and struggle to find that pacing sweet spot early on but features enough pockets of outrageous hilarity to power across the dead zones. Matching Cohen for each pound of flesh, Bakalova is a revelation as Borat’s daughter Sandra Jessica Parker, committed as hell to making this all work, particularly the messier stuff, and energizing the film’s not-so-subtle feminist tilt.

What is perhaps most surprising about Subsequent Moviefilm is its unironic embrace of progressivism and the creator and star’s onscreen maturation with his handling of this material. Though it seems somewhat insincere to call a movie that features a period blood dance mature, the shoe fits as if on a cartoon princess. If a dog as antiquated in his beliefs; as racist, anti-Semitic and sexist, and buffoonishly misinformed as Borat is can learn new tricks, perhaps there is room for hope for the co-workers, friends, peers, uncles, grandparents, and cousins who have lost their way. Cohen has moved past the need to pry us apart and invites us instead to laugh together. As America moves towards a brighter future, the dinosaurs of the world lose their relevance. Borat becomes a relic. Like everything in 2020, it’s adapt or die. Cohen has adapted. Borat has died.

CONCLUSION: Sacha Baron Cohen brings Borat back from the grave to confront 2020 America in ‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’. The result is decidedly less iconic (and relies too heavily on scripted rather than unscripted material) but succeeds in delivering gut-busting laughs and Cohen’s brand of shock and awe comedy, while also moving the dial on what Cohen’s particular style of shockumentary is able to offer. Newcomer Maria Bakalova is a treasure.