I recently re-watched the first Borat, for I think the first time since I saw it on release. The thing with Borat (and Cohen's other characters) is that they started as fake interviewers who were designed to show up the interviewees' prejudices and assumptions and how easily they bought into these horrendous walking stereotypes. When Cohen makes a film of them with a fictional narrative and so on, it loses that satirical aspect and just becomes a comedy film with a horrendous stereotype at the centre of it. Even with the sections where he interacts with real people, there are a few moments where you see some Americans being patronising or openly bigoted (and this is a lot less shocking to see, to me at least, in 2020) but mainly they act pretty reasonably - it's more Jackass than Brass Eye.
Rating: Fine.
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