Sorry to Bother You (2018)

It’s rare when I have a cinematic experience that truly shocks me to my core because of a film being outside of the box. That shouldn’t be the case, but often the movies I prioritize seeing are made for the sake of making money and not to primarily send a message to its audience.

This film, however, is something completely different. Boots Riley’s directorial debut Sorry to Bother You is a wild, wild ride that aims to be a protest of the systemic oppression of the fundamental truths of capitalism, albeit taken to extreme places. Its allegorical nature makes it bold and forward with its message, but its method of getting that message across is highly effective.

What will make or break this film for somebody watching it is how they handle its extremely literal nature. Sorry to Bother You makes no efforts to hide its message; in the naming of its characters, the parts they will eventually play in the story are often revealed (the pro-union character is named Squeeze, the protagonist ascending the corporate ladder is Cassius “Cash” Green, etc.). It also has Cash’s voice be dubbed over by David Cross when he makes calls for his telemarketing job as his “white voice” and making a ton of sales in the process, throwing in an emphasis on code-switching being encouraged for those on the wrong side of the socioeconomic ladder (the racial implications are there too, but the message here seems more centered on wealth and prosperity within the film).

All this only worked for me because of Riley’s surrealist visual style; much of the film’s imagery is designed to look unrealistic and fake to give the whole film an ungrounded, unrestrained feeling. One of the early examples of this is how Cash’s telemarketing calls are portrayed: his desk literally falls into people’s living and dining rooms when he calls them, making for a string of impressively comedic moments. The obscurity and wild nature of the film makes the forward message and on-the-nose allegory much easier to digest, as it breaks down barriers that might be up in a more conventional film (Pixar does the same thing quite often, using surreal and exaggerated animation that purposely doesn’t resemble real life to tell deeply human stories). The slightly dystopian version of Oakland in which the film is set only helps this cause, keeping all of the horrifying elements of its society (one example being lifetime laborers in for-profit prisons, run by the corporation WorryFree) a couple ticks away from reality at all times.

If all that seems like it could be a bit of a narrative mess, that’s because it almost is. Riley also wrote the film, and at times his passion for his work can start to overflow in a bad way. Sorry to Bother You juggles a lot of messages and plot threads, which works for most parts of the film but not all. A romantic subplot involving a love triangle gets abandoned almost as soon as it starts, and certain characters feel forgotten in the film’s second act before coming back suddenly in the third, of which Squeeze is just one example. If some of these elements were not established as well as they are early in the film, then this would have been a lot less of a problem. The third act throws the entire film into a hectic frenzy which works because of how well the film eases us into the ridiculousness that occurs; nevertheless, the narrative cohesion of the plot is often sacrificed for making one connection after another to the themes being discussed.

Despite all that, Sorry to Bother You is very much worth a watch. There’s some surprisingly good acting from Lakeith Stanfield and Tessa Thompson among others, and it cannot be accused of lacking weight and requiring little thought. The first half of the film is an excellent black comedy that satirically jabs at western capitalist society, while the second half makes twists and turns that I could not have seen coming. It will surprise anyone who watches it, making them think about topics they will not be able to ignore due to the up close and personal nature of the film’s allegory. Could it be better? Of course it could; there are some trims that should have taken place, but the overwhelming passion of Boots Riley that covers the entire film makes the flaws more palatable and establishes him as a director to watch in the coming years.

My recommendation: If you want to be legitimately surprised, then please go see it.

My rating: 83/100