Here’s a smaller flick that I went into almost completely
blind. I had seen the posters, knew vaguely that it was a scifi satire that
involved telemarketing of all things, but beyond that, I had no idea of what to
expect. And having seen Sorry to Bother you? I think that’s about the best way
to see it.
The directorial debut of Boots Riley, this oddball stars
Lakeith Stanfield as Cassius ‘Cash’ Green, a young African-American in rather
desperate need of employment that scores a job at a telemarketing agency.
Despite his girlfriend Detroit (Tessa Thompson), protesting their buzzword spewing
supervisors, Cash soon finds the key to success in the job with some advice
from a cameo from Danny Glover. Namely, putting on a ‘white voice’, in this
case seemingly an imitation of Steve Buscemi, as you do.
Thanks to this, Cash is on the rise in the apparently very
high-profile world of hardcore telemarketing, and soon finds himself networking
with seemingly benign corporate bosses who might not be what they seem. It
might all seem like a slightly odd satire of capitalism, race relations, and
exploitation…and then it soon becomes a friggin’
insane satire of all of the above. In some ways, it does remind me of the
heavy-handed allegories of seventies science fiction, from films like ‘Network’
to ‘They Live’. It’s not outright with the scifi aspect until about two-thirds
in, but once it’s there, it…still doesn’t make much more sense, but damned if
it doesn’t deliver a shocking punch to your no doubt slightly bewildered face. All
the absurdism throughout keeps on ratching up and up to the end.
Sorry to Bother casts a pretty damn wide net with its
satire—everything from viral videos, to vapid game shows, to modern art
installations, and of course, racial issues. Not of all it hits—some jokes and
parodies will probably just leave you with an odd look on your face, but there
are plenty others that got a wry chuckle out of me. You can tell Riley’s
relative inexperience with the filmmaking game, but he makes up for it with
sheer unwillingness to give a crap, doing anything and everything he fancies with
the camera and crew at his disposal. It might be rough around the edges, but it
does all feel sincere, and to me, that’s something that can make up for many
shortcomings.
That being said, I personally would’ve cut the film down
slightly, as there are some slightly superfluous scenes here and there—but
those hopefully won’t be the ones that stick in people’s heads. Indeed, there’s
one scene that you may have already heard of that definitely will, but there’s other highlights I feel that are also
worthy of mention, like a hilarious parody of MTV ‘crib shows’ about dinky
corporate lodgings, and Cash trying to navigate patronizing and coke-snorting partgoing
elites the only way he can. Hit or miss it may be, but when it hits, it hits
surprisingly well.
The film also comes with a pretty funky soundtrack from The
Coup, which might be worth checking out on its own. Overall, Sorry to Bother
You isn’t going to be for everyone, but if you fancy an off-kilter but sincere
satire with in your face absurdist craziness, this one is probably not only
going to be up your alley, but definitely leave you with many things to talk
about…
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