wooh! "Sorry To Bother You" has the makings of an instant cult classic. Writer-Director Boots Riley, gives us his first major motion picture, and it is a visionary treat! It has the sensibilities of an avant garde filmmaker, like what you tend to see from indie movies. It has imaginative visuals that will keep your eyes on the screen, wondering what you will see next. It moves at a kinetic pace, filled with crazy subtle touches of world building, background gags, to social-political commentary. You're going to want to keep close attention to what you see in this satirical film.
The promotional trailer thankfully doesn't reveal all the juicy tidbits about this movie. There's a lot to unpack about what happens in the story, about what it's trying to say, about the metaphors, about the allegories, about the characters, etc... However, to say what I really think about what this movie's story is, very much means I'll have to get into spoilers territory. Which I'm not going to do in this review (the "Spoilers Pleeze" podcast perhaps?). All I can say is that the basic premise of this story takes you on a journey with generally familiar tropes, then tosses you into a variety of scenarios that are a little bit different than what you might expect. Maybe it's exactly what you expect, but perhaps not done in this style.
Lakeith Stanfield is put to great use in this movie as Cassius Green, and proves he deserves more leading man roles. He is the character surrogate for us, and the decisions "Cash" makes in the story are going to be ones that you'll have to think hard on whether you would do exactly what he did. He goes through a lot in this, and if the story successfully puts it's magic on you, then you will definitely absolutely be invested with what happens to him, all the way until the final credits. The supporting cast are also great in this, from Tessa Thompson, Armie Hammer, Steven Yuen, Jermaine Fowler, and several more, but this is far and away Lakeith Stanfield's movie, and you will be okay with that.
So the visuals are fantastic, the story is captivating, the characters are quite the characters, the plot is way out there, the social-political commentary is thought provoking, and the sense of humor plus self awareness are all just spot on! One can easily argue that "Sorry To Bother You" is not for everybody's taste, as it puts a lot of faith in the audience's ability to accept what they are watching here. Thankfully, I did, and had a blast!
LOVED IT enjoyeditlikedititsokayitsmehitsterrible
