‘Sorry to Bother You’ Review
One of the great pleasures of theatergoing — second only to discovering a new favorite, in this critic’s view — is finding a film so singular, both in vision and execution, that it simply demands to be seen, no matter how legion the flaws may be. Trouble is, that second part tends to cut into the joy a bit — last year’s allegorical thriller mother! and kaiju-themed rom-com Colossal both met the criteria established above, which made their collapsing under their own lofty ambitions all the more heartbreaking. Rare is it that the stars align that such outré visions survive in the execution. Sorry to Bother You, the debut film by Boots Riley, is one of those lucky few.
Granted, those ambitions aren’t quite obvious from the get-go. The film at first follows Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield, excellent), an existentially depressed telemarketer who finds success by using a surprisingly convincing “white voice” (hilariously dubbed over by David Cross). However, his newfound success ends up alienating his friends and girlfriend Detroit (Tessa Thompson), a problem exacerbated when a labor organizer named Squeeze (Steven Yeun) shows up to unionize Green’s office. That on its own is a sturdy enough premise for a decent programmer, but thankfully for us, Riley has something far greater in mind.
As it turns out, the use of dubbed-over code-switching to climb the corporate ladder is but a single aspect of what turns out to one the most pointed and richly detailed takedowns of American capitalism since RoboCop. Riley stuffs the margins of the film with all other sorts of satirical jabs, from a recurring game show called “I Got the Shit Kicked Out of Me!” to a living center/prison colony run by a slimy entrepreneur named Steve Lift (Armie Hammer, incredible as usual) which offers lifelong housing and food in exchange for unpaid employment. It’s clear that Riley, like Verhoeven before him, aims to use a goofy premise to dig into the moral rot at the heart of our culture, from the private prison industry to reality TV to viral internet phenomena. Yet it’s the way he implicates us in said moral rot that feels most inspired of all: Cassius Green’s rise in the corporate hierarchy implicates him in the most predatory aspects of capitalism, and the more successful he becomes the more Riley forces us to reckon with how a comfortable life comes through the exploitation of the less fortunate. This is some of the most bracing social commentary your multiplex will see all year.
But all this discussion of message belies just how thoroughly bizarre Sorry to Bother You gets. Bouts of magical realism, such as when Green’s telemarketing calls find him being literally transported into the rooms of his customers, keep us on our toes, suggesting that there might be something much stranger beneath the surface. As does the incredible sequence in which Green attends a house party hosted by Lift, which achieves the nervy energy of Boogie Nights’ famous “Sister Christian” sequence with an added dimension of simmering racial tension. Eventually, though, that subterranean weirdness rises to the surface, albeit in ways you weren’t quite expecting. It would be criminal to spoil the fun, but let’s just say there is a distinct moment in this film that will have audiences talking for a long time — you’ll know it when you see it. It is also at this moment where Sorry to Bother You turns from a pretty great film to one of the year’s best.
SCORE: 74
Sorry to Bother You opens July 6, 2018. Directed by Boots Riley, 105 minutes, Rated R.
