Review: Sorry to Bother You
Sorry to Bother You may be the most WTF commentary on social, racial and identity politics disguised as satiric workplace comedy ever made. Brought to you by rapper and activist Boots Riley, here making his directorial debut, it is a delightfully deranged and bonkers piece of work that is unabashed in its ambitions.
Lakeith Stanfield stars as Cassius Green, a young man first seen landing a telemarketing job despite his interviewer calling him out on his fake credentials. Some cash flow would definitely be handy considering he's months behind on paying his uncle (Terry Crews) for letting him live in his garage, but Cassius just isn't having any luck. Despite his best efforts, he keeps getting hangup after hangup until, following the advice of an older fellow telemarketer (Danny Glover), Cassius begins using his white voice (dubbed by David Cross). Suddenly, Cassius is earning commission left, right and center.
Another co-worker Squeeze (Steven Yeun) enlists Cassius to be part of the burgeoning movement to form a union so the workers can get fair wages and benefits. Cassius is down for it...until he becomes one of the company's "power callers" and is invited into the inner sanctum, wherein the power callers are tasked to sell more questionable items, such as a voluntary forced-labour system called Worry Free Living which, as its opponents note, is pretty much modern-day slavery. Suddenly, going to work means crossing the picket line for Cassius, a development which does not sit well with his activist girlfriend, Detroit (Tessa Thompson). Still, Cassius can't help but be drawn into the orbit of his company's CEO, Steve Lift (Armie Hammer), though Lift's latest scheme of increasing human productivity via genetic experimentation proves a bridge too far for this young black capitalist.
Riley obviously has a lot to say and some may feel that his message gets lost amidst the crazier elements (hello, hugely endowed horse-human mutants) that comprise Sorry to Bother You, yet his provocations and insights come through loud and clear. It could have done with a little pruning as some jokes run on a little longer than they should, and its final third may be a bit too uncontrolled for its own good, but one can't really complain when presented with such originality, rambunctiousness and an unquestionable sense of purpose.
Sorry to Bother You
Directed by: Boots Riley
Written by: Boots Riley
Starring: Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Omari Hardwick, Terry Crews, Danny Glover, Steven Yeun, Armie Hammer, David Cross, Lily James, Patton Oswalt, Forest Whitaker, Rosario Dawson
