Nothing will prepare you for the viewing experience that is Boots Riley’s 2018 film, Sorry to Bother You. Wickedly original, this movie is best seen with absolutely no preconceived notions or expectations — just know that you will be left a little, if not very, bewildered. The film stars LaKeith Stanfield in one of his best roles yet. Everything from the music to the production design is bright and provocative. Stanfield plays Cassius Green (a play on “cash is green”), a young Black man who’s looking for a way up in the world. He finds it with Regalview through a job as a telemarketer. A coworker (played by Danny Glover!!) advises him to try a “white voice” when speaking with customers, and when he does, he shoots through the ranks and ends up at the top of a very bizarre ladder, making for a scathing if not subtle critique of capitalism. This is as much as one should know of the plot before entering the film.
In the summer of 2018, I saw Sorry to Bother You three times in the theater. Today, the movie theater seems like a distant dream — instead I watched it again on my small, dirty laptop screen last month. But even without the gleaming and encompassing glamour of the silver screen, the film felt the same: audacious, sharp, and very, very pointed. I mourn the decline of the movie theater as much as anyone. In high school I snagged a discount and could see two movies a week. But even I know that if the theater dies, film will just adapt. And the kind of film Sorry to Bother You will survive anything.
This kind of film is infused with artistic direction and intention at every step of the way. The imagery of the film is rich, in your face, and deliberate. It’s Boots Riley’s first feature, and the care and attention paid to even the smallest details makes that apparent. Every piece functions within the film with intention, in service of a very specific theme. And even though it functions so well, it still breaks all the rules. This is not a conventional film by any means; it’s shocking, exuberant, and unhinged. The film is a slap in the face, a wake-up call, a hand grabbing you by the hand and demanding you answer, “Is this the kind of world you’re living in?”
Boots Riley says yes. And the film he made to ask the question in the first place agrees. The Oakland in the movie takes place in is just a little off from the Oakland of our world. The corporations in the movie are just a little bit more twisted, like the state of the world in the movie is a natural next step within capitalism and we all might be signing up to work in a “WorryFree facility” in the next few years. While making such commentary, the movie also swerves, becoming surreal and then sci-fi, all while peddling a very conspicuous theme — well, several, actually. If I had any criticism here it would be that Sorry to Bother You does so many things at once, but at the same time it is that chaos and momentum that makes it work in the first place.
This film is suited to the moment. In a time of a lot of economic uncertainty and a widespread loss of faith in capitalism, Sorry to Bother You pushes absurd to the extreme, and its statements on exploitation, race, class, and the worker of the future are ever-relevant and ever-poignant. It’s also a good laugh, but if you watch it, be careful. You’re in for quite a ride.