While the major studios battle for what’s left of the summer box office market…bold, creative and original indie cinema has found its sweet spot as the alternative to popcorn movies. The big budget blockbusters still do well and hold serve over the market share, but it’s refreshing to see there is still a consumer space for innovative storytelling and filmmaking. Sorry to Bother You epitomizes that kind of ingenuity, gets very weird and still manages to be one of the better films this year.
Boots Riley has been around the film industry for a while doing soundtrack work and acting since the late 90s, but this was his first time in the director’s chair and, for a debut film, this was an incredibly ambitious effort. He wrote the smart and wildly off the wall screenplay named for his band’s 2012 album and even produced the soundtrack with his group, The Coup, so this was really his project head-to-toe. The story is set in an alternate, but just-almost-plausible, reality where a young black man in Oakland ventures into the world of telemarketing and discovers the path to his success is “white-voice”. However, that success is absolutely everything except what it seems, delving into the fantastical and ridiculous. It’s an allegory about perception versus reality and the definitions of success (especially in regards to race), but still manages to have a very acute sense of humor. Riley wrote some very natural dialogue considering how ludicrous things get, but he clearly has a sense for people and how they interact which gave (most of) the characters tangible authenticity in an inauthentic world. The plot gets a bit out there and it’s outlandish for a reason, but it’s evident the screenplay had many of the visual elements queued up to hit those points. For a first effort, this was a really smart and cleverly made film that’s probably gonna go over a lot of people’s heads. However, it’s certainly a front runner for my Most Original Screenplay Award and I look forward to more projects from Riley down the road.
Donald Glover was reportedly in line to play the lead role of Cassius Green, but his role in Solo created some scheduling conflicts and opened the door for his Atlanta co-star Lakeith Stanfield. Everything happens for a reason. Cassius is definitely the main character, but I wouldn’t call him the star here. He is easily one of the least charismatic people we meet throughout the film and Stanfield did a really nice job bringing the character to life without overshadowing what was going on. In many ways, he serves as something of an unwilling narrator at the center of things much bigger than himself. Plus, much of his dialogue is delivered by comedian (and very white man) David Cross providing “white-voice” so there is a disconnect with him on that level. I can understand why Glover was considered for the roll, but ultimately I think he may have been a bit too smooth for Cassius. Stanfield was just the right amount of sympathetic and culpable. This film, and it’s relative success, will certainly open some doors for his career.
Tessa Thompson seems to be in just about everything these days (with good reason) and she played Detroit opposite Stanfield here. The burgeoning actress has a remarkable versatility that showcases ferocity and vulnerability in equal amounts. Her character is an artist, an activist, a vandal and Cassius’ girlfriend. His success is marked more profoundly by what it does to their relationship and that helps to draw more noticeable moral lines in the sand for the audience. It wasn’t all business and Thompson was able to showcase her sense of humor here as well, bringing some awkward moments of levity to the screen. I can’t think of many actresses who could have pulled off this character as effortlessly as she did and her stock will only rise as a result. She’s already got four movies in the bag this year with Creed 2 coming out in the fall.
I don’t generally dislike Armie Hammer, but I’ve never been quite sold on him either. I really enjoyed his performance in Free Fire but was less than impressed by his turn in Call Me By Your Name, which garnered plenty of acclaim last year. Nonetheless, he’s a lot better when utilizing his sense of humor and this role was a great fit for him since it took advantage of that while also allowing him play around with some wild intensity. He plays, Steve Lift, an eccentric billionaire (millionaire?) who makes his fortune off of pseudo-slave labor and dabbles in some unethical genetic tampering. He really did a great job embodying all that smarmy arrogance we’ve come to expect from rich assholes but maintained enough charisma to make him a whole lot of fun to watch. I’d love to see him work with someone like Tarantino, or even Aaron Sorkin again, who could give Hammer the dialogue to take full advantage of his skill set. His performance here is unlikely to garner a ton of interest, but he was a blast to watch and easily one of the best parts of the film.
Eyde Belasco put together a cast littered with a slew of familiar faces, young up-and-comers and talented character actors to strengthen the film as a whole. Most notably, Danny Glover has a small but important role as the guy who teaches Cassius about “white-voice”. The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun shows up as Squeeze, a travelling anti-authority pro-union advocate who strikes up a brief and ultimately pointless fling with Detroit. Comedian Jermaine Fowler plays the best friend Salvador. The pair have a brief falling out, then back in again, based on what’s happening at work for each of them. Last but not least, we were treated to some really good and bizarre performances by Michael X. Sommers and Kate Berlant, as Johnny and Diana DeBauchery respectively, Cassius’ low level bosses. The two inject some really weird energy into every scene and effectively steal the show every time they’re on screen. The supporting cast was the most entertaining element of the film more often than not and helped spread the performance burden around.
The trailer for the film made it seem as though there was going to be some high level, or at least highly creative camera work on display, but it was somewhat pedestrian. That doesn’t mean it was bad, it just wasn’t particularly special either. Doug Emmett has been around the block, but didn’t bring anything ssignature to this project as the cinematographer. However, film editor, Terel Gibson did get to put his spin on things. I’m sure much of that is due to the collaborative efforts of Emmett and Riley, but the editing choices injected a lot more life into what we were watching.
Aside from the basic premise, I had no clue what to expect. This is the kind of movie that either you’ll get and enjoy, or you won’t…I’m not so certain there is really a middle ground. I’ve always been a firm believer in the ability of fiction to address truths in a way that non-fiction simply can’t. So, I enjoyed it because it was weird enough to stay original but not so far removed from reality that it lost relevance. It was indeed one of the better movies this year, even though it won’t be for everyone…don’t worry, it’ll be a cult classic soon enough.
Recommendation: If you are willing to take a chance and see something outside of your comfort zone, then this one’s for you. It’s smart, funny, original and strange…the quadfecta. Sure it carries an R-rating, but It’s a soft R for sexuality, language and drugs even though none of that is gratuitous. Not exactly a movie for the whole family but it has something for almost everyone.