Sorry to Bother You is uncategorizable as a movie because nothing has taken the same risks, but the outcome is stunning
Sorry to Bother You is overwhelming, mesmerizing, confusing, terrifying, and perhaps, almost too smart for its own good. That being said, there’s never been a more stunning takedown of capitalism than this movie. Get Out changed cinema as a mainstream social satire that works effectively both on the level of a horror movie and comedy. And while Sorry to Bother You doesn’t quite reach that level — the pacing feels precisely too slow and too fast at the same time — it’s heartening to see something like it exist. Mostly because a movie like it has never existed. If any movie is postmodern, it’s this one.
In the movie, which is Boots Riley’s debut feature, television is dominated by the news, a show called “I Got the S#*@ Kicked Out of Me!”—it’s exactly what it sounds like—and ads for
Lakeith Stanfield plays Cassius “Cash” Green, who we meet in the middle of a job interview for the telemarketing company RegalView. Hilariously, he comes in holding an employee of the month plaque and enormous trophy from high school. However, the interviewer notices that a job on his resume is a fake—since he was the manager of the bank that Cash allegedly worked at. Still, Cash is hired—mostly because the job takes almost no skills other than “sticking to the script.”
Cash struggles with the job at first. He’s unable to get any customers to buy anything, which even drives him to consider working for Worry Free. His artist-activist girlfriend Detroit (Tessa Thompson) vehemently opposes the concept of the company and often vandalizes their billboards as part of an activist group called “The Left Eye”. Eventually, Langston (Danny Glover), one of Cash’s coworkers, gives him the tip of using his “white voice” when talking to customers. It’s exactly what you think it’d sound like. Cash’s white voice is voiced by David Cross. Again, it’s a provocative, ridiculous, but incredibly effective way to portray the
After the end of each shift Cash’s friend Salvador (an underutilized Jermaine Fowler), who also works at RegalView, and co-worker Squeeze (Steven Yeun) go to a local bar to decompress from the day. Squeeze mentions wanting to start a union to demand raises. Salvador, Cash, and Detroit, who has begun working at the telemarketing company, all join along with most of the staff. They stage a strike in the middle of the day that angers management, and though Cash is part of the strike, management still promotes him to “power caller” based on his performance. He is sent up in a golden elevator with a ridiculously long passcode—one of the best sequences of the film—and meets his manager, whose name is bleeped out, who explains that power callers sell everything from weaponry to workers for Worry Free.
From there, Sorry to Bother You somehow gets even more bizarre for better and for worse. Riley leverages provocative imagery that we have seen—protests getting violent as they clash against authorities— and that I sure as hell hope we never see—something involving horses. However, it shows that he has a clear message, even if that message isn’t communicated as clearly as I would have hoped. Some aspects or threads are dropped, some for the better and some for worse. However, it’s just the mark of a first time director.
By the time Armie Hammer’s villainous Worry Free CEO Steve Lift comes into the mix to present Cash with an offer, the movie is off the rails in that the means of the plot becomes pure fantasy, but the message remains a troublingly realistic one. Riley targets our society today with dead-on aim from politicians being outraged without any follow through to the very concept of capitalism. And while cinematically the movie doesn’t always work, that aspect is there. Sorry to Bother You has so many ideas and delivers on a lot of them and falters on some, but the very idea of the movie is the protest. Yes, it’s weird. Yes, it’s shocking. But I am so glad this movie exists. Riley, Stanfield, and Thompson
Sorry to Bother You is available to buy or rent on Amazon!
Karl’s rating:
Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.