I Love Boosters ★★★

Anyone who watched Boots Riley’s debut feature film Sorry to Bother You knew to expect something unconventional from his follow-up, I Love Boosters. Riley delivers on this and then some with this surreal crime comedy not only introducing some truly outlandish supernatural and science fiction elements but baking in Riley’s unique directorial vision into every frame. It is uniquely him. In his social media, he has credited some of this individuality to having not seen every classic film that most of his contemporaries have seen. Perhaps this is partially the answer, but there is a brazenness to Riley’s works that is found in I Love Boosters. A “devil may care” attitude, a refusal to conform to norms and propelled forward by an urgency in its messaging to never sand off any of its rough edges. Whether one comes away enjoying I Love Boosters or not, Riley is out to shock the system and shock the system he does.

The title I Love Boosters is a nod to the work of the protagonists, a group of “boosters”  – shoplifters who steal high-end fashion items then re-sell them for steep discounts in their local community – known as the Velvet Gang, led by Corvette (Keke Palmer). Currently squatting in an old chicken restaurant and running her shop out of a small apartment she rents, Corvette longs for more. She idolizes fashion designer Christie Smith (Demi Moore), whose stores she frequently robs. Corvette has her fashion design ideas and embraces her personal trademark of always wearing something turquoise. Together with her friends Sade (Naomi Ackie) and Mariah (Taylour Paige), Corvette has quite the enterprise going with the Velvet Gang even drawing Christie’s attention, labeling the group “low-class urban bitches” and calling for the boosters to be stopped.

This makes up the foundation of I Love Boosters’s narrative, but true to Riley, it has much more up its sleeve. In terms of approach, Riley layers in various elements of surrealism. Christie Smith’s operations are headquartered in a Bay Area apartment complex built on an extreme slant. Corvette is followed around by a giant ball of everything causing her stress. Riley includes numerous cartoonish elements that make great use of miniatures and stop-motion animation, such as an exaggeration of the hilly terrain of the Bay Area as the gang goes up-and-down the hills while trying to get away. There is a subplot regarding a man known only as “Pinky Ring Guy” (LaKeith Stanfield) – who is often shot in extreme close-up with an intense visual effect around his face, perhaps mimicking lust or some other supernatural nature within him radiating out – who draws Corvette’s attention. The pair’s will-they-won’t-they flirtations provide an undercurrent of sorts, but Riley of course goes into a truly wacky direction with what can only be described as a demonic oral sex subplot. I Love Boosters in this and in other indulgences can be a bit too much, though the overall ride is one that is hard to resist.

I Love Boosters is goofy and raucous outside of its more outlandish plot elements and practical effects with a lively score from Tune-Yards and vibrant costume design embracing the individuality of its characters and providing a vibrant color palette. True to Riley’s thematic foundation, I Love Boosters is very much a message movie with some of these effects and gags channelled in that direction. As the boosters continue to strike, Corvette lands a job at one of Christie Smith’s stores. The location, when introduced, is awash in green. Store manager Grayson (Will Poulter) even sports dyed green hair, all part of Christie’s intention of branding every one of her stores in a particular color shade. As she says in an ad, “Don’t want that color? Go to a different location.” By the time Corvette is hired, the store is a shade of yellow and everything has been changed to match. Grayson runs a tight ship, demanding every employee wear the latest of Christie’s fashion and taking the expense of buying them those outfits out of their paychecks. They get 30-second lunches – portrayed in a goofy fast-mo scene – while Grayson gets an hour-long lunch. It is hyperbolized, but Riley is building to a point. This is just one prong of a wider-scale issue.

Christie’s stores are aggressive and uncomfortable. Awash in a particular color and playing deafeningly loud music, they intend to sink customers into a particular “vibe.” It is dehumanizing, proliferated by middle management that is there solely to keep the lowest class, the front-facing employee, in line. Their wages are poor, the hours are long, and the inequity of their position is clear in the disparity between what their manager Grayson gets and what the employees get. As Corvette schemes to steal more of Christie’s clothes to stick it to her for calling the Velvet Gang “urban bitches,” other issues mount. Fellow employee Violeta (Eiza González) begins to organize the store employees to unionize for better conditions, a problem Corvette sees as unconnected to her own. In another supernatural element, Jianhu (Poppy Liu) teleports from a Chinese factory manufacturing Christie’s clothes to report on the abhorrent conditions of the factory and the diseases spreading due to the methods Christie demands they use. Again, Corvette views the issue as unconnected to her own purpose. Sade, meanwhile, views the Velvet Gang’s works as a means to feed their family, while Mariah sees it as a chance to serve their community by keeping everyone looking good at prices the people in their neighborhood can afford. Corvette, motivated purely by revenge and selfish ambition to attract Christie’s attention as a potential designer, again rejects these missions.

The message is clear from Boots Riley: workers of the world unite. Corvette is wrong-headed. The store employees are being mistreated. The factory workers are being mistreated. The elite class owns not only the means of production, but has priced the working class out of culture and the means to provide for themselves. The boosters are a shot across the bow of the elites, but uniting as a force to help unionize, galvanize, and empower the people ensures everybody’s mission is accomplished and every bit of progress helps everybody, even if one’s attention is focused elsewhere. In one particularly outlandish bit of cartoonish entertainment – with practical effects that have the echoes of the legendary Ray Harryhausen, particularly Jason and the Argonauts and the classic skeleton scenes – Riley pulls back the mask of what stokes the flames of our culture: those very same elites. It is no grand reveal perhaps, but he ties it into control of media messaging from fearmongering about crime to local news pieces about poor working conditions, rent control/prices and food shelters, and food stamps. I Love Boosters is, as with Sorry to Bother You, an angry film at its core. It is fed up with an unjust world, one that dehumanizes and demonizes those struggling while actual demons are out there walking around, destroying the world and making it serve only them, their needs, and their rich friends.

I Love Boosters is wild. It is raucous and outlandish. Funny and spirited, it rides on Boots Riley’s singular vision, righteous messaging, and the incredibly talented cast, led by the always charismatic and powerful Keke Palmer. Without her matching the vibe of I Love Boosters, it could have felt too off-kilter. But, Palmer both grounds the events when needed and embraces the insanity with both feet in. I Love Boosters is a fun time at the movies, a true shock to the system and one that hopes to leave the audience with the realization that our problems may be different, but the systemic causes are the same and with our voices united, change is possible.