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domino harvey wrote: Thu Oct 01, 2020 8:35 pm Allegedly there’s material included about President Trump and Epstein

The Guardian: "Rudy Giuliani faces questions after compromising scene in new Borat film"

Details of the scene in question:

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The actress playing Borat's daughter lures Giuliani to a hotel room rigged with hidden cameras, wherein he flirts with the actress, praises the President's coronavirus response, and appears to reach into or take off his pants in preparation for sexual activity. The scene is then interrupted by a scantily-clad Baron Cohen.

Giuliani claims the movie misrepresents what happened...

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... claims he was just tucking in his shirt.

I saw somewhere else that the scene is worse and more damning than it sounds. We'll see, I guess.

I saw Borat in a mostly empty cinema in Scotland. What I'd give to have experienced the naked wrestling scene in a packed theater.

Reviews for Subsequent Moviefilm range from B- to A- among the sites I've come across (AV Club, Indiewire, Variety). Matt Zoller Seitz wrote a great one at Roger Ebert.com

The movie's scripted fiction mirrors the reality that the star captures when interacting with nonprofessionals: there is no agreed-upon morality, ethical code, or national fellowship in America. There is only greed, tribal loyalty, and power dynamics. Maybe that's all there ever was. This is a dark, dark movie, invigorating in its bleakness.

I would be interested to hear what the intended takeaway from the scene is? That he's a sex offender? Committed a sexual assault felony? Why not bring a case and have him jailed, they have it on video right? Why not bring the suit in July when it is was filmed? Because they wanted to exploit it for commercial reasons? To hurt trump and affect the election? That ship has sailed and as to the large universe of things that will swing the election, this movie isn't in it.

So what else? Show to the audience that Giuliani is hitler monster satan evil rapist traitor creep? The intended audience of this movie already believes that. So just preach to the choir? Re-affirm their views? Tell them that no he's not a hitler monster satan evil rapist traitor creep but a really bad hitler monster satan evil rapist traitor creep?

I think the capacity of people to be surprised is genuinely limitless.

I doubt you are interested in anything not originating from your echo chamber in this and all matters

I know plenty of moderates and some conservatives who find Borat funny, and Sacha Baron Cohen effectively provocative in general, so I'd be careful in assuming there's a homogenous audience for this film

What it may well do is defuse the Hunter Biden "scandal" by demonstrating that there's actually more hard, checkable evidence that one of Biden's main accusers is not exactly a man of impeccable moral probity, and that he's also all too easy to dupe - as many have already commented, if Giuliani fell for a Borat prank, how hard is it to believe that he's been similarly compromised by Russians? (Who in any case are widely believed to have been the source of this laptop with the weird email software that doesn't retain metadata tags to enable confirmation that the emails were real.)

Although since the Hunter Biden story is pretty much a nothingburger, despite the frenzied efforts of Trump and his lickspittles to keep it at the top of the agenda, it's hard to say whether this will sway anyone's vote. After all, people who believed the allegations were most likely firmly in the bag for Trump anyway.

Finch wrote: Thu Oct 22, 2020 2:40 am I saw Borat in a mostly empty cinema in Scotland. What I'd give to have experienced the naked wrestling scene in a packed theater.

I saw Borat opening night in a very large crowded cinema that LOVED the film - it was a great experience.

Is Nate Silver adding this film as a variable in his election polling amalgamation, and if this film doesn't quantifiably sway the election should I even bother to watch it? It don't like watching movies made by losers who are abject failures.

Finch wrote:I saw Borat in a mostly empty cinema in Scotland. What I'd give to have experienced the naked wrestling scene in a packed theater.

I did, and it was the most pain laughter has ever had me in. I was fighting for breath.

The film just dropped on Amazon Prime EST at 8pm (12am GMT)

MichaelB wrote: Thu Oct 22, 2020 7:23 am What it may well do is defuse the Hunter Biden "scandal" by demonstrating that there's actually more hard, checkable evidence that one of Biden's main accusers is not exactly a man of impeccable moral probity, and that he's also all too easy to dupe - as many have already commented, if Giuliani fell for a Borat prank, how hard is it to believe that he's been similarly compromised by Russians? (Who in any case are widely believed to have been the source of this laptop with the weird email software that doesn't retain metadata tags to enable confirmation that the emails were real.)

Although since the Hunter Biden story is pretty much a nothingburger, despite the frenzied efforts of Trump and his lickspittles to keep it at the top of the agenda, it's hard to say whether this will sway anyone's vote. After all, people who believed the allegations were most likely firmly in the bag for Trump anyway.

The FBI has already said the laptop is not part of a Russian disinformation campaign.

Do you have a source for that?

A more accurate précis would be to quote the FBI saying “we have no intelligence to support” (the Russia claim). Which isn’t the same thing as an emphatic denial - indeed, the wording of the statement has clearly been very carefully calibrated to avoid saying that.

Well, I didn't like this at all. I don't know if it's because the novelty has worn off, the material isn't as funny, or I've become less fun as I age, but hardly any of the shock humor or absurd gags landed. Borat's daughter, while trying hard and probably doing a decent job in a tough part, didn't click and in a risky perf like that it was pretty painful to endure her go for broke. I did laugh a couple times, and out loud once (and quite hard) but it wasn't at a 'gag' -just the way Borat made an observation on the descent into smartphone use in passing. The movie peaks early, though it's more of a small wave.

Maybe it's because I just came from the debate, but I thought it as a hoot. Seeing the veneer of our politics get stripped, especially just the everyday offensive ideas people hold on to, or are simply indifferent to-- how many people didn't object to the girl being in a cage? I realize some must have known it was a farce and were going along, but it's apparent others weren't.

Haven't finished it yet, but so far it feels like this came out at exactly the right time.

I only just started, but notorious pussy hound Michael Pence is already the best joke about this administration however low a bar that is.

How hard is it to watch a whole film before posting about it?

This is such a communal feeling movie that watching it alone would be miserable I’d assume.

There was someone on Twitter recently who said they’d never seen All That Heaven Allows, were about to start watching it, and THEY’D BE LIVETWEETING

One aspect that I've appreciated more in reflection is how

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the two QAnon roommates are genuinely good people who treat Borat well and go out of their way to accommodate him. It's easy to point a finger at them and dilute their personalities into alt-right followers, but Cohen's own take on it from recent interviews is that, behind all the dividing walls, most people are caring and share traits of the same kind humanity.

It's a breath of fresh air from someone who is loudest as a 'Gotcha' exposition artist to come down as an optimist in this respect.

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In that respect I kind of wonder how they pulled off the qanon scene without hacking their computers

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I thought this was okay. Some legitimately funny bits, but there are a lot of set-ups that fizzle out.

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Even the Giuliani scene is not quite as shocking as the hype led me to believe, but it's still something. I do actually think it's plausible that he was tucking in his shirt during THAT moment, but the whole context of the scene (saying "come here", patting her side, asking to exchange numbers) is still pretty gross and damning.

I agree with Zoller-Seitz, this is a dark movie and a painful one to watch. I'm just not a fan of this type of stuff and any laughter gets overrun by extreme discomfort after just a few moments. Cohen tackles the usual low hanging fruit (pro lifers, Deep South conservatives, et al) and veers dangerously close to candid camera meets Tom Green, gross out territory quite often but when he's inspired he's probably the only person alive with the balls and the savvy to get close to and ultimately eviscerate someone like Giuliani. whose scene is one of the most sickening things I've ever witnessed. It all inspires an overwhelming sense of depression more than any sense of mirth with the lone exceptions being the two qanon men who shelter and feed Cohen for weeks. I'd like to think that every extreme alt right member or apologist has as much goodness in them as these two guys and that all so many of this country's citizens really need is a better bullshit detector and an inkling of common sense but then they go to that rally in the park and it's just so very, very ugly. I doubt any movie released this year will capture just how fucked up and relentlessly grim this year has been as well as this does but that doesn't mean I want to watch it, living through it has been bad enough.