'I Love Boosters' Review
Image Source: In Review Online
“I’m Boots Riley, and it’s a pleasure to meet you. Never let they punk ass ever defeat you.”
These are memorable bars from one of my favorite rap songs of all time, My Favorite Mutiny by The Coup. Before becoming a filmmaker, Boots Riley was the frontman of the independent rap group, The Coup. Between 1993 and 2012, The Coup put out six studio albums, with a handful of them receiving decent chart success and critical acclaim. Defined by their politically charged, radically ideological, and blunt lyrics, The Coup pulled no punches and Boots Riley never hid his political beliefs in his music. In 2012, The Coup released their sixth (and currently final) album, Sorry to Bother You. Based on Riley’s time in telemarketing, the album started life as a screenplay, but it was transformed into an album when Riley couldn’t find a way to make it into a film. That was until 2018. Starring Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, a pre-disgraced Armie Hammer, and Steven Yeun, Sorry to Bother You received critical acclaim for Boots Riley’s direction and screenplay, the performances, themes, and originality. Since its release, Sorry to Bother You has been hailed as one of the best films of the 2010’s and the film world eagerly waited for Boots’ second feature.
I Love Boosterssees Boots Riley’s imagination on a higher plane than that of Sorry to Bother You or his TV series, I’m a Virgo. Riley easily escapes the sophomore slump and crafts a film that’s so colorful, absurd, and timely that you feel like you’re being teleported into another world. Just like his previous works, Boots Riley doesn’t get weird for the sake of getting weird; his use of absurdist humor helps tell his story and also drive the messages of the screenplay home. If Boots Riley wanted to prove that Sorry to Bother You wasn’t a fluke and he could make a movie just as great on a larger canvas, he succeeded with flying colors. Quite literally in fact!
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Image Source: Collider
For the uninitiated, boosters are shoplifters who steal goods to resell them for a smaller price. In the world of I Love Boosters, fashion is the name of the game. Corvette (Keke Palmer) and her friends Sade (Naomi Ackie) and Mariah (Taylour Paige) steal designer clothes to sell them to underprivileged communities to make a living. Their most recent gig brings them to the doorstep of Christie Smith (Demi Moore), who has $100,000 suits that could make the boosters rich if they steal them. Along the way, they run into Jianhu (Poppy Li), who has her own motives to take Christie Smith’s fashion empire down. This is as much as I can say about I Love Boosters’ plot without revealing too much. If you think I Love Boosters is a straightforward heist comedy, you will be mistaken. I Love Boostersthrows us into a colorful universe that is as timely as it is eye-catching. Boots Riley’s distinct visual style is all over the film. His expert use of colors, playful cinematography (courtesy of Natasha Braier), and his signature sense of humor all help I Love Boosters maintain its controlled chaos. Under a weaker filmmaker, I Love Boosters would’ve crashed and burned when the heavier sci-fi elements were introduced. But thankfully, Boots Riley understands the concept of balance. Even when the film takes a mind-bending turn, it never loses its grip on the very political messaging. And the political messaging never feels forced or preachy, as the film’s themes of capitalism, housing insecurity, and labor rights are all told with Riley’s distinct flair.
The film’s cast shines brightly here. In the case of Sorry to Bother You, Lakeith Stanfield and Armie Hammer’s performance was so good that they out-shined everyone else. In I Love Boosters, everyone is memorable, no matter the size of the role. Keke Palmer makes for a compelling lead as Corvette, playing more of a real and fleshed-out character than just another variation of “Keke Palmer.” Naomi Ackie, Demi Moore, Eiza Gonzalez, Will Poulter, Poppy Liu, and Eiza González also do great work here. Lakeith Stanfield continues to prove he’s an insanely reliable actor and will often steal scenes in whatever he’s in. But the movie mostly belongs to Taylour Paige as Mariah, the naive and slightly dimwitted member of the Velvet Gang (the titular boosters). Paige’s comedic timing is very different from her previous acting performances, which helps her give the most memorable performance in the entire film. If Riley ever intends to work with these actors for a potential third feature, it’ll be all the better for it.
Image Source: Variety
I Love Boosters is a colorful, thoughtful, incredibly funny, and original film that further cements Boots Riley’s reputation as our most unique filmmaker right now. The lens that Riley uses to look at the world around him provides us with great music, and now it provides us with great cinema as well. Between Riley’s ambitious directing and writing, the catchy musical score by Tune-Yards, Shirley Kurata’s Oscar-worthy costume design, the gorgeous sets, and the memorable performances (particularly from Keke Palmer, Taylour Paige, Demi Moore, and Lakeith Stanfield), I Love Boosters is what happens when a master of their craft becomes a master insanely quickly.
Whatever Riley does next (potentially a feature film adaptation of an award-winning Simpsons-inspired play), we will all be holding our collective breaths to see what technicolor chaos he has in store for us. While subsequent will be required to grasp how it stacks against Sorry to Bother You fully, one thing is certain: This is Boots Riley’s world and we’re just lucky enough to love in it.
Rating: 10/10
I Love Boosters is now playing in select theaters!
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