"I LOVE BOOSTERS" - REVIEW

I am always gobsmacked by Boots Riley‘s ability to take topics ripe for righteous anger, and then twist into something so fun, like he’s mixing heart-healthy Cheerios with Fruity Pebbles.

One of the year’s best movies, I LOVE BOOSTERS is the rapper/activist/writer/director’s riotously funny, kaleidoscopic follow-up to 2018’s SORRY TO BOTHER YOU and his Amazon Prime series I’M A VIRGO. The new film, which takes its title from one of Riley’s songs by The Coup, is not only another bold, endlessly creative middle finger to the oppressive systems that spin tirelessly to maintain the status quo, but an invitation to dismantle them, together.

Riley’s approach is to assemble a gleefully messed-up puzzle, but not more messed up than the society it lampoons. I LOVE BOOSTERS wears its anti-capitalist message on its sleeve, but that sleeve is attached to a coat of many colors, both in terms of literal color and in terms of genre. BOOSTERS is an Oakland-set sci-fi adventure heist comedy that follows a team of boosters (who steal designer fashion and sell it for bargain basement prices) led by Corvette (the ever luminous Keke Palmer, NOPE), “a raw-ass, make-it-happen hustler” who is starting to see the unsustainability of her scheme, as a young woman who yearns to be a clothing designer herself but can’t seem to get out from underneath the exhaustion of the daily grind.

Rounding out her “velvet gang” are the practical Sade (Naomi Ackie, SORRY, BABY) and the down-for-anything Mariah (Taylour Paige, ZOLA), on the lookout for their next big score all in the name of “fashion forward philanthropy.” Their tactics start getting the unwanted attention of visionary designer Christie Smith (played to entitled, profane woo-woo perfection by a very game Demi Moore in her first role since THE SUBSTANCE), who owns a series of clothing outlets that only sell single colors (“if you want a different color, go to a different location. Deal with it”) and who all but declares war on boosters from her ivory (leaning) tower.

To tell you more about the plot would be unfair, but along their way to Smith’s upcoming fall show, they also encounter a Chinese factory worker (Poppy Liu, HACKS), a fussy clothing store manager (Will Poulter, WARFARE), a retail worker-turned-activist (Eiza Gonzalez, AMBULANCE, in my personal favorite performance), a pyramid scheme guru who calls himself Dr. Jack (an unrecognizable Don Cheadle), and an irresistibly handsome mystery man who may be a literal demon (SORRY TO BOTHER YOU’s LaKeith Stanfield).

The son of the great Oakland civil rights attorney Walter Riley, Boots Riley’s activism is truly dyed in the wool, and his new film is an eye-popping tapestry of color, sound, old-school film techniques (including miniatures, matte paintings, and stop-motion animation) and vulgar humor (for instance, there are two surprisingly frank sex scenes, played for comedy). His script, especially in the film’s second hour, is a brilliant thesis on retaliation and escalation, and about how these justice movements can’t happen alone. Riley is aided and abetted by candy-colored costume design by Shirley Kurata (EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE) and production design by Christopher Glass (MS. MARVEL), and captured with the right amount of grit in anamorphic widescreen by cinematographer Natascha Brier (THE NEON DEMON). It’s all held together by a playful oompa-oompa score by Tune-Yards that sounds like Oktoberfest on Red Bull.

Will you love BOOSTERS? It energetically throws a lot at its audience, but trusts it to keep up and rewards it for doing so. It can be overwhelming. I wouldn’t call the film overstuffed, though. I’ve seen it twice now, and multiple viewings will provide opportunities to admire the little details that fill out the story. At first I thought the overall narrative, despite the clever narrative devices, to be a bit more straightforward, but only because I wasn’t prepared for the film’s optimism, especially when compared to the more cynical view of SORRY TO BOTHER YOU.

Bottom line: I LOVE BOOSTERS is a highly original and endlessly inventive piece of work, made with love, for the love of filmmaking, and for the love of everyone—from the Corvettes of the world, and even for the Christie Smiths of the world—who are all, in our own ways, feeling the squeeze of late-stage capitalism, but are simmering with the radical belief that it will change.

I LOVE BOOSTERS opens everywhere Thursday night.

#moviefriend

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#kekepalmer

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#taylorpaige

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@mncritics

Zach is a proud member of the Minnesota Film Critics Association (MNFCA). For more info about Zach, the organization, or to read other great reviews from other great Minnesota-based film critics, click here: www.mnfca.com