Written and Directed by Boots Riley
**** (four stars)
RATED R
Please allow me to bookend this latest posting with a personal story...
In the Summer of 1988, I was 19 years old and obtained employment working in the call center of Ticketmaster set in a large conference room itself inside of a tall downtown Chicago office building. It was a drought Summer, weeks upon end of high heat, humidity and arriving to work, after riding the CTA and the L trains to work, drenched in my own sweat only to begin drying/cooling myself off via the hand blowers in the swanky men's restrooms...much to the chagrin of the side eye gazing fat cats who entered and exited to sight of my African-American self armed with my smart aleck late teenage grin and dry commentary, "It's a bit hot out there."
My job was indeed what you might imagine it to be. Eight hours of talking on the phone to people desiring tickets to some sort of event, including that Summer's most coveted, tickets to the first Chicago Cubs night game with lights inside of Wrigley Field on August 8, 1988 (I'll never forget that date as long as I live!). Anyhow, one day, I answered my telephone line with my standard Ticketmaster greeting and I was then met with the voice of a woman who sounded older (perhaps late middle aged to just close to elderly) who inquired about tickets to an event to which I no longer remember. But her second request was something that I will never forget, even if I tried.
"I'd like to speak to someone White," she said.
I'll leave you with that as a bit of a cliffhanger as I wish to get to the film at hand.
"Sorry To Bother You," from hip-hop musician turned Writer/Director, Boots Riley arrives with this spectacularly audacious filmmaking debut that not only inspired the anecdote I began to share with you, it unrepentantly kept my head spinning throughout and afterwards. First things first, Riley has helmed not only my favorite film of 2018 so far, it is by far one of the finest films of this movie decade of 2010-2019.
All of that being said, it is without question one of the most WTF films I have seen, leaving me ultimately shaken and slapped around with an expression that could only be read as, "What the hell did I just watch?!" Boots Riley has created an astoundingly singular vision that not only speaks to this specific moment in our cultural history in the 21st century but to all of what has happened in the past as well as what will obviously continue to play out in the future. While the film is indeed a comedy, a satire, Boots Riley's "Sorry To Bother You," despite the politeness of its title, is decidedly take-no-prisoners in its extremely dark, absurdist vision in which we are all subjects as well as entirely complicit. This is fearless filmmaking at its most ferocious.
Set within a satirically askew version of Oakland, California, Boots Riley's "Sorry To Bother You" stars Lakeith Stanfield as Cassius Green (say his name a few times and roll it around your mouth to catch its clever meaning) nicknamed "Cash," who lives in his Uncle Sergio's (Terry Crews) garage, has a stable, loving relationship with his artist provocateur girlfriend Detroit (the amazing Tessa Thompson) and is desperately looking for a job, any job, in which he can finally pay off his debts to his Uncle, move out of the garage and begin his life in earnest.
Cassius eventually lands a job with RegalView, a telemarketing office, where he and his co-workers earn money on commission, a difficult task to achieve with all of the potential customer hang-ups. But, even so, Cassius remains steadfast, "sticking to the script" as instructed but to no avail. One day, Cassius is counseled by his friend and co-worker Langston (Danny Glover) to utilize his "White voice" when conducting phone calls. Not "Will Smith 'White'" as Langston conveys, but a voice that suggests ease, pride and a worry free outlook that would assuage potential customers' to buy what Cassius is selling.
Soon, Cassius, having discovered his "White voice" (as voiced by David Cross), becomes a telemarketing sensation and is promoted to the title of "Power Caller," acquiring copious riches and a new lifestyle but one where he leaves behind his struggling best friend Salvador (Jermaine Fowler), Union organizer Squeeze (Steven Yeun) and his co-workers who have now begun to strike against RegalView, therefore making Cassius a "scab."
As far as the overall plot of the film is concerned, what I have described is only just the tip, not much more than what you would find in the film's trailers and honestly, I am not certain that I could really describe anything else without producing major spoilers as well as possibly making you think that you would not wish to see such a film in the first place. But, what I can tell you is the following: Boots Riley's "Sorry To Bother You" is the absolutely perfect next phase in a series of dense, disturbing satirical works like Spike Lee's incendiary "Bamboozled" (2000), the novels of author Paul Beatty, most notably his searing and pungent The Sellout (2015), the early 1970's albums of Funkadelic, Erykah Badu's grim "New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)" (released February 26, 2008), Childish Gambino and Director Hiro Murai's brilliant, and brutally controversial "This Is America" music video from earlier this year and of course, Jordan Peele's "Get Out" (2017).
Yes, there are indeed severe twists and turns within "Sorry To Bother You" that might suggest the world of a thriller or even science fiction horror. But, I would not quite classify the film as anything like those genres, even though it does indeed house elements from all three. For me, the overall tone of the film, especially in its unmentionable conclusion is the tone of a very bad dream from which poor Cassius Green is unable to awake himself from. In fact, I nearly titled this posting "Nightmares From The Sunken Place," in order to convey a certain tonal description as well as conceptual. But that being explained to you, Boots Riley has conceived of a heavily layered film thematically and conceptually, more than worthy of exploration, discussion, and debate as well as repeated viewings.
Through the surreal odyssey of Cassius Green, "Sorry To Bother You" openly confronts themes discussing the dehumanization of cultural appropriation, reality television, the current status of hip-hop and rap music, capitalism at its most brutal regarding the subjugation and abuse of workers, and perhaps most savagely, the dehumanization of not ever taking a stand. Boots Riley's searing outlook, which contains a high rated television show entitled "I Got The S#*@ Kicked Out Of Me," a conspiracy plot that would make even the climax of "Get Out" shudder and of course, that "White voice," which grows more sinister the more often we hear it, serves as a warning to all of us that the idea of "sticking to the script," i.e. just blindly obeying the status quo is what will ultimately cause our societal downfall.
Even so, essentially all of the characters have some sort of hustle to play in this hostile world from RegalView itself and most obviously, the character of Steven Lift (Armie Hammer), the psychotic CEO of WorryFree, a company which promotes lifetime employment promises the ability to no longer worry about paying bills but is in actuality a sort of interment camp whose obedient army of workers are essentially legal slaves.
But, even Union leader Squeeze has eyes on stealing Detroit away from Cassius, and Detroit herself, who admonished Cassius for his over-reliance upon his "White voice," possesses a "White voice" of her own--the sound of an upper crust British woman, designed for the wealthy to purchase her agitprop artwork. And yet, Riley may be arguing, at least those characters, right or wrong, have all devised of ways in which they will indeed engage with the game of life instead of life eventually happening to them, unlike Cassius Green, who ends up trapped in a word he never quite made...and certainly never dreamed would ever occur to himself.
As Cassius Green, at this stage, there really is no other actor I could even think woud be more perfect for this role, and film overall, than Lakeith Stanfield as his work in both "Get Out" and as the kind-hearted, philosophical stoner Darius on FX/Donald Glover's outstanding series "Atlanta," and especially in the current season's jaw dropping "Teddy Perkins" episode, has made him tailor made for an experience as one-of-a-kind as "Sorry To Bother You." Stanfield's earnestness and level of sympathy as Cassius Green is fully ingratiating, making his choices or even lack of choices completely understandable to us in the audience, especially as we all know that he is being exploited by the powers-that-be.
The initial conflict for Cassius, and the beginning of his dehumanization, is the level of code switching he has to perform in order to just earn a living. As Dave Chapelle once wryly joked during his brilliant appearance upon Bravo television's "Inside The Actor's Studio," "Every Black person in American is bilingual. We can speak street vernacular and we can speak 'job interview'." The truth of that statement is unquestionably perceptive as well as exhausting, for that level of always being so painfully self-aware as to know when and how to alter the perceptions and prejudices, whether real or imagined, of those towards yourself depending upon situations and environments, often leads to devastating levels of identity crises, making people of color in particular endure endless questions of ethnic "authenticity."
And yet, Boots Riley is wise enough to place into the film that this specific quandary is not exclusive to people of color for White people also possess their own "White voices," thus making this aforementioned quandary entirely...human. For we all wish to become more than our own self-perceptions, to live up to a certain idealized inner vision or cultural expectation, these days expressed profusely through social media as we are all presenting the best, yet highly edited versions of ourselves to the world. Yet for some, to what end?
For Cassius Green, an individual who at the start of the film is essentially an ingenue, one who is constantly fearful of the future, of mortality, of the sun exploding and the universe ending altogether leaving him more insignificant to human existence than he already feels. He wishes to engage and feel like his life has meaning but he indeed, over the course of the film, allows himself to become swept away by all manner of circumstances and never truly awakens until it is too late. Certainly it will be that third act of the film that will make some of you wonder if Boots Riley's vision has flown off of the rails, even for a film as strange as this one. But do trust me, just go with it as Riley has a clear, razor sharp agenda at work and his visual metaphors to explore the brutality at work from corporations towards its workers who are only viewed as labor and not as human beings are as justified as they are horrific.
For all of the deadly serious commentary, the film remains playful. With early scenes that have Cassius in his call station literally dropping into the lives he is interrupting, to the political firecracker earrings Detroit adorns herself with, combined with the film's production and costume design, color schematics and Doug Emmett's brilliant Cinematography among a myriad of other sight gags and plays on words, Boots Riley's "Sorry To Bother You" often feels and even looks like something we may have previously experienced in something like Spike Jonze's "Being John Malkovich" (1999) or Michel Gondry's "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind" (2004), both of which were written by Charlie Kaufman. As with those specific films, Riley's film follows its own dream/nightmare logic with an un-ironic matter of fact quality merged with a cinematic inventiveness and ingenuity that is bracing to behold.
There is no question about it, for his filmmaking debut, Boots Riley showcases a staggering confidence and an unshakable, unrepentant tenacity with his bizarre yet crucially potent film, which, should be noted, he actually originally wrote in 2012, had published in McSweeney's, yet recorded as an album with his band The Coup (essentially creating a soundtrack for the film that had yet to be made) before receiving funding to make his film as envisioned. His intense persistence has more than paid off as "Sorry To Bother You" is exceedingly unlike any other film released so far this year or within the past several years, most definitely since Yorgos Lanthimos' "The Lobster" (2015).
It is a testament to the unfiltered originality and creativity upon display that we so rarely see in 2018 with all of our sequels, prequels, franchises, remakes, re-boots, and re-imaginings. It is simply an amazing feeling to be surprised by anything in the movies anymore and "Sorry To Bother You" is over-flowing with vehement surprises in a film that blisters and bruises with utter madhouse fury.
Now, as for the conclusion of that Ticketmaster story I began with, when the customer on the other end of the telephone line requested that she speak with a White representative. To that request, I responded, "I'm ready to help you."
"You're White?" she asked.
"Yes I am," I said. And with that, we proceeded with her transaction in full. Once the tickets had been purchased, the means of retrieval were effectively set up and payment had been made, the customer thanked me profusely for my efficiency, to which I thanked her for performing her business with Ticketmaster. Just before ending the phone call, I quickly yet with calm professionalism stated,"Ma'am, I have one final t hing to share with you about our transaction this afternoon."
"Yes?" she questioned.
"I wanted to inform you that you have been speaking with a Black person for this entire telephone call. Have a wonderful day and thank you for calling Ticketmaster."
End.
True story. I promise you. And hey, there was no way that I was going to ever, in that context, stick to that script.
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