Ali G: Who Iz I? review – Sacha Baron Cohen’s risky satire delivers shock value both upward and downward with extreme vulgarity

Two decades later, Baron Cohen’s live-action prankster returns, yet he must grapple with his own fading relevance in pursuit of big laughs and validation from a younger audience.

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If you enjoyed Sacha Baron Cohen’s Ali G the first time, you’ll find this iteration less appealing; if you disliked it, you’ll dislike it even more; if you suspected it was racist, you’ll feel more confident in stating that view – especially since Baron Cohen has invented a completely new character seemingly to preempt and mock that specific criticism. Broad and coarse as it often is – in fact, always is – this Ali G follow-up occasionally elicits laughter: the athletic energy of our protagonist’s pranks and provocations resembles the umpteenth Jackass film at which you might find yourself chuckling, and Baron Cohen stumbles with the semi-intentional force of an XL bully into the debate over whether jokes remain permissible.

Unlike the first film, 2002’s Ali G in Da House, this one lacks a fully scripted narrative. It is essentially another series of live-action stunts featuring some spectacularly bad taste directed at both the deserving and undeserving; it mocks the audacity of anti-woke free speech activists, delivering shock value both upward and downward with grotesque awkwardness, and the targets include several prominent figures not to be disclosed here. There are two additional supporting characters: Erran Morad, a sinister Mossad/IDF officer turned US security consultant (who appeared in Baron Cohen’s Who Is America? TV series), and a new figure: Dr Nira Cain-N’Degrocello, a grotesquely condescending white liberal who serves as the self-proclaimed enemy of cultural appropriation. The victims are woven into a big, silly climax constructed with body doubles and (presumably) covert reshoots.