I Love Boosters
Boots Riley boldly avoids sophomore slump with "I Love Boosters."
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I liked musician-turned-writer/director Boots Riley’s debut “Sorry to Bother You” well enough, but I outright loved his follow-up “I Love Boosters” (now in theaters).
Things aren’t going great for Corvette (Keke Palmer). Her designs have been lifted by billionaire fashion designer Christie Smith (a game Demi Moore). She makes her living by selling stolen clothes and squats in an abandoned fried chicken restaurant in the Bay Area.
Aiding Corvette in her thievery are her girlfriends Mariah (Taylour Paige) and Sade (Naomi Ackie). They decide they can better pilfer garments by getting gigs at a Smith store managed by Grayson (Will Poulter). Their co-worker Violeta (Eiza González, busy between this and last week’s “In the Grey”) also has an axe to grind against Smith as her wages have been dwindling and she wants to unionize to get what’s hers.
The gals big score gets upstaged when Jianhu (Poppy Liu), a disenfranchised laborer from Smith’s Chinese factory, turns up with a vacuum bag that sucks clothes into it. They decide to team up with this stranger from a strange land to royally screw Smith over.
“I Love Boosters” is just as angry, anti-capitalism and anti-consumerism as “Sorry to Bother You” was, but it’s a lot more entertaining and funny in delivering its message. The picture does jump the shark a time or two much like “Sorry to Bother You” did (I suppose it was more jumping the horse there), but it’s far less egregious and far more amusing here.
Riley is a hugely creative force who’s made a sci-fi comedy that’s equal parts fantastical and satirical on the dollar of executive producer Megan Ellison (daughter of Larry and sister of David - she’s the good one). “Everything Everywhere All at Once” costume designer Shirley Kurata also deserves a ton of credit for her dope duds and Riley’s flick bears more than a passing resemblance to that Best Picture winner.
With where we’re at right now, I hope we don’t have to wait another eight years for more Riley rabble-rousing.