By SORRY TO BOTHER YOU is one of the great debut films to open in my lifetime. Boots Riley announced himself as a singular satirist with his razor-sharp critique of the dead-end jobs that drill the working class into submission. It was a perfect balance of acidic social commentary and cartoonish (bordering on supernatural) humor. His follow-up, I LOVE BOOSTERS, has taken eight years to come to screen. You can tell. A loving homage to honest thieves quickly explodes into an overwhelming collage of high concepts, all fighting for room in what should be a very simple and satisfying heist story. It is RELOADED to THE MATRIX: ambitious, wildly convoluted storytelling that snuffs out a central conceit that should’ve been an easy winner.
We follow the Bay Area “Velvet Gang” initially composed of Corvette (Keke Palmer), Sade (Naomi Ackie), and Mariah (Taylour Paige). They are “boosters,” people who steal from expensive clothing stores and resell the wares at a discount price. As Mariah touts, it is “fashion, forward fhilanthropy.” They are particularly drawn to stealing from a high fashion brand ran by the cutthroat Christie Smith (Demi Moore), eventually staking out one of her locations (that changes into a different monocolor each month) by getting jobs as brand representatives. Eventually, they come across Jianhu (Poppy Liu), one of Christie’s overseas factory workers who has teleported to the Bay Area with a strange device. This doohickey has other reality-altering functions, but the girls primarily plan to use it to send Christie’s expensive clothes back to the warehouse so that the workers can have collateral to strike with.
This is already a lot.
Somehow, it’s not even touching upon a litany of other gags and subplots that Riley senselessly peppers throughout this. We have LaKeith Stanfield as a mysterious womanizer who takes a liking to Corvette despite an unsavory secret (which is essentially a sexually violent sight gag that dominates one scene and then never meaningfully reappears). He just occasionally strolls into the film to do career-worst work, begging for Corvette’s attention in a weird accent. Don Cheadle, caked in prosthetics, plays a pyramid-scheming grifter who Sade is inexplicably obsessed with, and, like Stanfield, gets one sequence to fire off some unfunny standup about the nonsensical inner workings of this scam: It’s buzzword-laden costume comedy out of a bad drag brunch. His character at least factors more potently into the story, only because he is directly involved in an atrociously lame third-act twist that feels completely recycled from SORRY TO BOTHER YOU. Eiza González joins the gang as a longer-term employee who is also ready to go rogue; folks give candid camera interviews to TV reporters spewing off anti-working class talking points. It’s a nonstop barrage of trivialization. Class warfare, and creatures, and heists, oh my!
Said heist eventually becomes white noise. Riley has assembled a cast of Hollywood’s most charismatic and vibrant young actresses, but smothers them. They’re so busy dealing with the overcomplicated rules of this caper that they barely get time to interact and build any chemistry; we understand that they are close friends only because they repeatedly say so. Palmer anchors things as well as she can, but she’s mostly stuck breaking down exposition. If only Corvette had the singular style and presence that Tessa Thompson brought to SORRY TO BOTHER YOU’s Detroit. Ackie, Paige, González and Liu are all fighting for oxygen to get a word in edgewise; tragically, all the while the biggest standout is Demi Moore. Encrusted in garish makeup with an unflattering blonde wig on top, she absolutely relishes the opportunity to play the snide heel. Zero depth, just a gleeful manifestation of vindictive capitalism.
Riley injects it all with commendable style. The elaborate set design and visual effects ensure that this world runs on Hanna-Barbera rules. Moore’s fortress is a luxury apartment building that is literally tipping towards the ground. At one point, Palmer’s legs flop under her at warp speed like Scooby-Doo as she tries to sprint away. There’s even some stop motion! The costumes are as vibrant as they should be, these boosters dressing from a hell of a closet. I LOVE BOOSTERS is a loud film in every sense of the word. Despite often only achieving shock value, Riley’s film is so unflinchingly willing to bend rules and throw everything at the wall that it remains morbidly entertaining and occasionally funny.
I LOVE BOOSTERS has an admirable message about class solidarity that is so very needed in these trying times. In essence, this is Riley’s rendition of Robin Hood and his Merry Men looting the wealthy to galvanize the proletariat against their oppressors. I can easily envision the film’s sheer ambition—and drive to acknowledge these themes—sweeping viewers away and perhaps even convincing them that they have just seen a new masterpiece. I found myself yearning for SORRY TO BOTHER YOU’s precision. That film had plenty of insane moments, but for the most part, it remained rooted in a principal storyline where its core characters had well-drawn arcs. If BOOSTERS had been as focussed and direct, it could’ve transcended twisted surrealism and transformed into something truly rousing, something that could move the average moviegoer into action. As indie studios like NEON desperately lure adult audiences back into theaters with one high-concept take on social issues after another, I find myself fatigued with the farce. This should’ve worn its heart on its sleeve.
I do think that Riley will make another outstanding film. He has the tenacity and sheer will to manifest these outrageous, socially conscious stories that are distinctly his. I just hope he pulls back a little. Find one subject to tell a story about and give it his signature texture. I’m certainly intrigued by his upcoming project, an adaptation of Anne Washburn’s “Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play,” a play about apocalyptic survivors’ recreation of “Cape Feare” from the fifth season of THE SIMPSONS. He needs the discipline that an adaptation will bring. This is an admirable swing, but much of its heart was boosted in the process.
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