Written by: Boots Riley
Starring: LaKeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Omari Hardwick, Terry Crews
Rating: [4.5/5]
New directors join the film industry every year bringing a fresh new voice into the world of moviemaking to keep others on their toes and introduce innovative ways to present their stories. Then you have those who come in with such a radical and bold form of storytelling that leaves your mouth agape, which we receive in Sorry to Bother You. A film that left me shocked at what it presented but done so in such an innovative and effective manner that draws us into its message.
Struggling to afford rent and even fill up his car with gas, Cash Green (LaKeith Stanfield) gets a new job as a telemarketer for RegalView. When instructed by one of his co-workers to use his white voice to present a receptive voice, he finds instant success taking him all the way to the top. While climbing, he begins to see what it takes and what it does to those below him.
No one has seen a film like Sorry to Bother You, a brazen anti-capitalism film skewering the idea in such comedic and horrifying ways through the use of some zany visuals. Describing the definition of show don’t tell on several occasions, this feature will undoubtedly not let you forget some of the scenes it presents making it quite an unforgettable experience. Once the dust settles and everyone stops screaming, it makes for something quite profound to dissect.
It comes as no surprise to say, operating within a capitalistic culture forms a game of the haves and have-nots. Resources don’t exist to satiate the hunger of those who seek to hoard them and others requiring just the minimum. This feature takes this fact and runs with it Cash climbs up the ladder in the telemarketing company using his white voice. From selling basic products on one level, he grows and has the opportunity to make exponentially more money but the higher earning potential presents a moral dilemma for him. Selling those exclusive items with specific customer bases ensures others will feel the aftermath of those products and the higher compensation serves as the means to drown out any ideas of maintaining any morality. Reaching this level puts him at odds with others in his life seeking to fight back against the entire system, including his girlfriend, Detroit (Tessa Thompson).
A complete firecracker in the film, Detroit maintains a radical view of how to interpret everything happening with Cash and she presents it all through her art. Quite the medium to tell her truth, she utilizes some intriguing methods in order to communicate everything and her overall demeanor and attitude feel like such a fresh and bold character. From her giant earrings depicting the words “kill” and “murder” she stands out amongst all of the other colorful characters the story has to offer and Tessa Thompson steps in and delivers quite the performance here.
Setting this story in San Francisco, one of the saddest examples of gentrification, certainly came with intention. Cash starts out in a garage at his uncle’s house and can barely afford that rent through other means of employment because of the ridiculous expectations and demands for real estate prices in the area on top of the other elements within the cost of living. The way he lives at the beginning helps inform exactly why he loses his unification and allyship with the other members of the working class as the more money he attains the better life he can build for himself, which serves as the ultimate American mindset. This causes him to cross picket lines when he should not be in solidarity with workers. Losing a lifestyle this system has provided to you makes it hard to let go and think of the revocation of the individual benefits for the sake of the larger good. Certainly one of those circumstances where it’s easy to speak on the ideas of solidarity until one’s money gets impacted.
As the film progresses you may think you have an idea where this feature will go, but let this serve as a warning that no one can guess the direction this story goes. Moving to a mansion where horrific things get revealed this feature gets absolutely wild with its revelations to the point where it may turn some off from the movie but what it presents certainly gets at some terrifying truths about our economic system. It says the quiet part out loud and presents it in an unsettling manner visually because Boots Riley felt this served as the best manner to deliver home the message and he certainly was not wrong. These reveals certainly allow for quite the jarring tonal shift but one necessary because we can all have laughs until the truth comes out and shifts the way anyone processes how they see the world.
Entering the scene like a bomb, Boots Riley delivers something outlandish with this feature. Something so singular in his vision and bombastic in what it produces. He comes in and makes something as if he would never get another opportunity to make a film ever again and I’m grateful. It imbues a level of creativity in presenting a cogent argument in such an entertaining manner without losing its focus. Through these characters, he crafts representations of the cog and what it means to fully break the wheel and cease the incessant turning to make some impactful change. Sorry to Bother You remains a one-of-a-kind movie and one that allows continual rewatches to be incredibly rewarding in taking in the craziness of the narrative.
Films with Josh 
