"Sorry to Bother You" Needs No Apology

There is a lot to admire about Boots Riley's "Sorry to Bother You." It is a pointedly political film that is unabashedly critical of capitalism, American race-relations, and the modern culture of excess. It is bursting with big ideas, from the African-American main character practicing code-switching by literally using a white person's voice, to the leading lady building her artistic career on the commodification of political protest, to the media being complicit maintaining a society built on degradation and wage-slavery. The quasi-surreal style is also fantastic, a mix of Michel Gondry's whimsical DIY aesthetic and Spike Lee's vibrant polemicism.

The story follows Cassius "Cash" Green (Lakeith Stanfield), a struggling Oakland resident who gets a position as a telemarketer for the corrupt RegalView company. Cash turns out to be great at the job, and faces the possibility of real financial success and upward mobility for the first time in his life. However, his girlfriend Detroit (Tessa Thompson), and his friends Sal (Jermaine Fowler) and Squeeze (Steve Yeung) are spearheading protests aimed at unionizing RegalView. Tensions mount as Cash becomes more and more successful selling out, and gets involved with another nightmare company, WorryFree, that is doing some very unethical things with its workforce.

Yet for all the ambition and all the willingness to tackle these big, important topics, parts of the movie simply didn't work for me. I have no complaints about the first two thirds of the film, where Cash's story is told through a lot of these exaggerated, cartoonish devices, and full of pointed moments of social commentary. I love that David Cross and Patton Oswalt were recruited to play the "white voices" of black characters. I love Detroit's comically large earrings displaying protest slogans, and the godawful snippets of mass media. There are two deeply uncomfortable scenes - one where Cash is obliged to play rapper at a party, and another where Detroit presents a disturbing performance art piece - that are worth the price of admission by themselves.

The whole ensemble is great. Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, and Steve Yeun are actors who have spent most of their careers in supporting roles, and it was a treat to see them finally get more sizable, interesting parts to show what they're capable of. Stanfield in particular is so good at getting across Cash's internal discomfort and anxiety in the face of situations he knows are awful, but is willing to give the benefit of the doubt. Thompson has never been more off the wall or more fascinating to watch. I wish her subplot, like so many other parts of the film, could have been developed more. Armie Hammer and Danny Glover also pop up in small but important roles, deployed perfectly.

Where things really go awry is in the third act, where we move from a world full of exaggerated elements to some flat-out fantasy. And I honestly think that this could have worked if the execution of the really outlandish stuff were better, or if the scope of the story had gotten bigger as it went along. Instead, it feels like an entirely new storyline from a very different movie got stuffed into the last thirty minutes of "Sorry to Bother You," and nobody could figure out how to make it work. This feels like a case of a director biting off more than he could chew, putting every idea he had into a movie where there was no way it was all going to fit, and that he didn't have the budget or experience to do it justice.

In a way, that's a wonderful thing. Few films display this kind of unbridled commitment to creative experimentation nowadays. However, I feel the wilder elements unfortunately did end up undercutting some of the film's messages in the end. People didn't come out of screenings talking about its politics, unlike "Blindspotting" and "Blackkklansman." Still, for the most part this is a great first feature from a monstrously talented director, and I have no doubt that he'll be back for more. And with any luck, he'll have figured out how to focus a little better next time.


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