Borat Subsequent MovieFilm or Borat: Gift of Pornographic Monkey to Vice Premiere Mikhael Pence to Make Benefit Recently Diminished Nation of Kazakhstan

Movie: Borat Subsequent MovieFilm or Borat: Gift of Pornographic Monkey to Vice Premiere Mikhael Pence to Make Benefit Recently Diminished Nation of Kazakhstan
Nominated for: Actress in a Supporting Role, Adapted Screenplay
How I watched: Amazon Prime
When I fell asleep: Nah.
When it had me: In some isolated moments
When it lost me: A lot. Over and over. All the time.
What I have to say:

This movie is so problematic for me. 

First off, I watched it because I heard all the fuss about Giuliani being caught in an inappropriate moment. I wanted to know what was really going on there. It wasn't world changing. I long ago decided Giuliani was gross and dangerous, so his questionable encounter with a fake reporter was to be expected. 

Sacha Baron Cohen has said that he wanted to release this movie to expose truths about Trump followers before the election. But my problems with the ethics behind his film making would leave me feeling that this film is not the best resource for deciding on your vote for president.

It is never clear to me who in the film is in on the joke and who is not. It is hard for me to believe that all the real people presented on screen bought into his story about being from Kazahkstan. Since they never tell us what people know and what they don't, it feels very unfair to me. I can't be sure who is displaying stupidity, who is showing they are mean-spirited and unkind, and who is just trying their best to play along with some crazy, eccentric dude?

If you have decided that racists are idiots and deserve to be tricked and made fun of, I'm totally fine with that, but there is also a scene in a synagogue where Borat sits with two elderly Jewish women and says all the horribly antisemitic things he can. I don't know who that is making fun of? I don't know if they were in on it or just politely horrified. The whole thing feels sketchy and disingenuous and makes me uncomfortable.

This film is nominated for Adapted Screenplay. My first question is: how does one even qualify this as a screenplay? It is a series of  improvised tricks and sketches. Much of what they capture is designed to be unscripted and surprising, similar to making a documentary. My second question is: how does it qualify as adapted? I found out the answer to this one. The Academy considers all sequels to be material that was "adapted" from the original. Ok, that's fair.

What's not fair is that a film like Midnight Sky did not get an Adapted Screenplay nomination because Borat happened. Ugh. I'm over this movie.