2018’s Sorry To Bother
You, written and directed by Boots Riley.
Starring Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler,
Terry Crews, Danny Glover, Steven Yuen, Omari Hardwick, Michael X. Sommers,
Armie Hammer, Patton Oswalt, and David Cross.
What is it about?
African American have-not Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield)
and his artist girlfriend, Detroit (Tessa Thompson), begin jobs at a call
centre. He has aspirations of impressing his boss, Johnny (Michael X. Sommers),
as well as being able to pay his overdue rent to his Uncle (Terry Crews). Unlike
the rest of his down trodden wage slave coworkers, Cassius has a secret weapon
to elevate his sales pitches- a white voice (voiced by David Cross). With his sales volume up, Cassius
needs to make a choice: will he join the ranks of his pro unionizing workforce
(lead by a revolutionary minded Steven Yuen) and be an agent for change, or will
he elevate to the power caller floor above the call centre to get himself
paid?
Why is it worth seeing?
Writer director Boots Riley creates what is likely the
strangest and most satirical movie of the year. In the above synopsis, I’ve
purposely left some of the dramatic left turns that the movie engages in, as STBY in its incomplete form could sound
almost like a Saturday Night Live sketch stretched to feature length movie. Rest
assured it is not- it starts off odd, and then gets odder (and more intriguing).
But it’s not about just being strange for strange sakes. Riley’s script creates a incendiary satire of capitalism, and behind all the dirt poor sight gags and comic slights against the working class, comes the attached ebb and flow of revolutionary fervor. Beyond knowing what is in the sausage, is how the ruling class always has another ladder for you to climb, and another snake to slide down just when you think you belong with the 1%.
But it’s not about just being strange for strange sakes. Riley’s script creates a incendiary satire of capitalism, and behind all the dirt poor sight gags and comic slights against the working class, comes the attached ebb and flow of revolutionary fervor. Beyond knowing what is in the sausage, is how the ruling class always has another ladder for you to climb, and another snake to slide down just when you think you belong with the 1%.
Like all great satirical works, actor Lakeith Stanfield and company play it
straight in the face of bizarreness. Costar Tessa Thompson is hysterical as
well, as she engages in performance art shows that would make Yoko Ono blush
while wearing some outfits that cycle through various stages of gaudy coolness.
All of these sight gags and the tomfoolery regarding one’s position on the
corporate ladder becomes all the more surreal when anything is possible- both
in the confines of the film’s frightening universe, and in real life (which is the
scariest). That’s what makes it so unnervingly comic. Somewhere out there is a
eerily powerful person who is trying to figure out how to fool people into
bondage- and then how to spin it so that we think we all benefit from that
person’s involuntary sacrifice.
Heavy on oddness and metaphor (its vibes and community
minded protagonists make nods to 2008’s Be
Kind, Rewind), Riley’s satirical views on capitalism raise both laughs and
eyebrows. It’s always a treat to have someone challenging you when the laughter
dies down- its lack of apology for bothering you is timely enough to interrupt
dinner.
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