Why Borat Is Sacha Baron Cohen’s Best Movie (& Why Brüno Is Second)

With the surprise announcement of a Borat sequel that will drop on Amazon Prime in time for the election, it’s clear that Sacha Baron Cohen has done the impossible over the past few months. Amid the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, he’s filmed an entire movie as his most recognizable character in hidden-camera stunts. The movie is going 8½-level meta, as Baron Cohen will be playing Borat in various disguises.

Making a sequel to Borat is risky, because it’s easily the greatest movie in the Baron Cohen oeuvre. It was a cultural landmark when it hit theaters in 2004. But Borat’s lesser cousin Brüno is still more than deserving of its silver medal.

10 BORAT: It Exposes A Broader Spectrum Of Ignorance

The purpose of Baron Cohen’s characters is to present ordinary Americans with an outlandish personality – a wacky foreigner or a hypersexualized gay man – to challenge their prejudices. In Brüno, the only ugliness exposed is homophobia.

While that’s certainly shocking, Borat exposes a broader spectrum of ignorance: racism, xenophobia, sexism, white supremacy, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and indeed, homophobia.

9 BRÜNO: It Pushes The Envelope Further Than Borat

The reason why Brüno received more negative reviews than Borat is that some critics felt Brüno went too far, whereas Borat danced right on the line of what’s appropriate.

But surely breaking more boundaries and pushing the envelope further is a point in the movie’s favor, at least as a follow-up to Borat. It had to go further than Borat to justify its existence. Otherwise, it would’ve been more of the same.

8 BORAT: It Has A Wider Range Of Interview Targets

In some of Baron Cohen’s recent work, he’s been deliberately trying to bring out the worst in people. But in Borat, he just brought out the worst in the Borat character and allowed his interview subjects to react however they’re going to react.

In Borat, the interviewees range from a surprisingly woke middle-aged driving instructor who defends the right to sexual consent to a rodeo cowboy who gleefully high-fives Borat over the idea of lynching homosexuals.

7 BRÜNO: It Exposes The Depths Of The Fashion Industry’s Vanity

To say that the fashion industry is shallow and vapid wouldn’t be much of a hot take. But by indulging the vanity of models, Brüno exposes just how otherworldly the industry’s level of narcissism is.

One of the most shocking segments in the film sees Brüno casting infant models and getting parents to agree to put their babies in insanely dangerous positions for modeling work.

6 BORAT: Its One Celebrity Cameo Is Used More Effectively Than Any Of Brüno’s Laundry List Of Cameos

Both Borat and Brüno utilize celebrity cameos, but the former only contains one, where the latter has a bunch. Most of Brüno’s celebrity guests are either duped for real, like Paula Abdul, or featured in completely scripted scenarios like the song recording in the final scene.

What makes Borat’s Pamela Anderson cameo more effective than any of the celebrity appearances in Brüno is that Anderson was in on it, but no one else was. Anderson plays into the stunt, while her bodyguards’ response to the attempted kidnapping is genuine.

5 BRÜNO: Brüno Has A More Complete Character Arc Than Borat

Borat’s character arc is pretty thin, with his quest to get to California to marry Pamela Anderson providing a loose outline for the story. Brüno has a more complete character arc.

In addition to falling out with his producer, as Borat had done, Brüno begins to question his sexuality, fearing he’ll never become famous as a gay man, and tries to get converted to heterosexuality before finally accepting who he is.

4 BORAT: There’s A Surplus Of Iconic Moments

There are a handful of really great moments in Brüno, like Brüno riding into a busy street with baby O.J. precariously perched on the handlebars of his moped, but Borat has a much higher quotient of those moments.

Borat’s hijinks are priceless, from singing the Kazakh national anthem at a Virginia rodeo to bringing a hooker to a fancy dinner party to singlehandedly destroying an antique store to the attempted kidnapping of Pamela Anderson.

3 BRÜNO: The Stunts Are Some Of Baron Cohen’s Bravest

In both Borat and Brüno, Sacha Baron Cohen puts himself in dangerous situations for the sake of comedy. But the latter’s stunts are even braver than the former’s.

Hitting on a homophobic hunter in the middle of the night or inciting a riot at a wrestling match took a lot of guts. In one particularly astounding sequence, Brüno and Lutz wake up chained together in a hotel room and walk through a Westboro Baptist Church rally, asking protesters with “God Hates F***” signs for help.

2 BORAT: The Naked Hotel Fight Is A Thing Of Beauty

When Borat comes out of a hotel bathroom and finds a nude Azamat pleasuring himself to a picture of his beloved Pamela Anderson, he engages him in a fight. Soon, the fight moves out into the hallway and into a crowded elevator, then through the lobby and into a conference room and onto the stage at a corporate event.

This scene is one of the greatest hidden-camera feats ever pulled off and a testament to the power of scatological humor done right.

1 BRÜNO: It Has The Perfect Climactic Set Piece

The climactic set piece of Brüno is the perfect culmination of the movie’s goal to expose the deep-rooted homophobia in America. The filmmakers organized a cage fight and plied a bunch of local wrestling fans with cheap beer before shooting the scene.

Brüno comes out in the guise of “Straight Dave,” spouts a bunch of homophobic rhetoric, then gets challenged to a fight by Lutz. Brüno lets him into the ring, but instead of wrestling, they start making out to the sounds of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On.” The crowd starts booing and throwing chairs at the ring. Some audience members are even seen shedding tears.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
(3486 Articles Published)

Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

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