By George & Josh Bate
Boots Riley established himself as a truly singular filmmaker with his feature directorial debut Sorry to Bother You, an ambitious, original, and scathing satire that, while ultimately slipping too deeply into fantasy territory, made it clear that the Chicago-born filmmaker has something important to say and has a creative way to say it. Riley’s follow-up effort, I Love Boosters, remarkably surpasses Sorry to Bother You in every way, delivering an absorbing, endlessly creative, and fiercely original cinematic event.
Unfolding in a heightened version of the San Francisco Bay Area, I Love Boosters stars Keke Palmer as Corvette, the leader of a group of shoplifters known as the Velvet Gang. Together with Sade (Naomi Ackie) and Mariah (Taylour Paige), Corvette targets clothing stores owned by cutthroat fashion designer Christie Smith (Demi Moore), who Corvette holds a particular vendetta toward. As their heists draw attention and further incense Smith, the Velvet Gang turn shoplifting into an act of defiance and become modern day Robin Hoods, challenging a capitalist system by championing the importance of the laborer.
In an entertainment landscape dominated by seemingly countless movies and shows hitting theaters and dropping on streaming services everyday, it takes quite a bit for a project to feel unlike anything you’ve seen before. But I Love Boosters does exactly that. Riley’s sophomore directorial effort tells a story that, when reduced to its barebones, plays like a contemporary Robin Hood set amidst the high-end fashion scene. But such a description simplifies a film unafraid to embrace the bizarre with all manner of crazy ideas, visuals, dialogue, plot devices, and more.
Early on, Riley clues the audience in that his film takes place in a somewhat heightened reality. Gags like Taylour Paige’s Mariah holding her breath long enough to appear white and Keke Palmer’s Corvette comically trying to remain upright in an apartment with a slanted floor give I Love Boosters a quirky, almost otherworldly tone, although Riley intelligently keeps his story grounded in an approachable plot and doesn’t lean too heavily into the fantastical (at least initially).
Steadily over the course of the film, Riley ramps up the weird factor with tremendous success and inventiveness. A film that begins by following a group of shoplifters in the Bay area eventually includes teleportation, stop-motion animation, a demon, and all kinds of wild concepts one would never expect would make their way into the story. Not every strange idea is executed elegantly, namely a device straight out of a science fiction movie that, despite lengthy exposition scenes, still raises eyebrows, but the sheer originality and uniqueness of Riley’s film mean such issues are fairly easy to ignore.
All of this strangeness comes to a head in a delightfully bizarre final act that must be seen to be believed. By this point, the Adult Swim-coded Robin Hood tale has reinvented itself so many times that seemingly little could happen to truly shock the viewer. And yet Riley finds a way to accomplish that feat. It may overstay its welcome and become a tad unwieldy with all the concepts it’s juggling, but the film commendably never becomes too heightened or too ridiculous as to lose the audience’s investment in the story and its characters.
Speaking of characters, there isn’t a weak leak in the assembly of idiosyncratic, oddball personalities that Riley positions front and center in his movie. Keke Palmer leads the Velvet Gang, and the film more generally, with a performance perfectly attuned to the tone Riley aims for. Naomi Ackie, meanwhile, shines in a role that sees her friendship tested with Palmer’s character as Corvette’s philanthropic aims run counter to Sade’s more practical goals. Taylour Paige is arguably the best of the Velvet Gang trio, with her unique facial expressions and deft comedic timing making one wish Mariah played a bigger role in the film.
But the real standout of I Love Boosters is LaKeith Stanfield, who plays an elusive and alluring figure credited as Pinky Ring Guy. Although his character’s entry into the story is a tad jarring and requires more exposition, Stanfield chews up the scenery with every scene he features in, captivating with bizarre charm and humor as a man every woman becomes entranced by. As more about Stanfield’s backstory is revealed, an already mesmerizing character becomes all the more interesting, so much so that we want to start a petition for Riley to make a spin-off movie or series about Stanfield’s character.
Although Stanfield steals every scene he’s in and the film bolsters an impressive ensemble that also features Will Poulter, Don Cheadle, Demi Moore, and Eiza González, I Love Boosters is firmly a movie about Keke Palmer’s protagonist. Unfortunately, her character’s primary emotional arc never develops beyond a few scattershot scenes. Throughout the film, Corvette and others make mention of her loneliness and hypothesize just why she feels so isolated in the world. But the audience never truly gets an adequate sense of Corvette’s loneliness, nor how it impacts her well-being. This renders conversation about the topic fairly uninteresting and fosters an arc for our protagonist that is as underdeveloped as it is misplaced.
Where Riley’s film errs in its characterization of the protagonist it makes up for with its scathing critique of capitalism. In I Love Boosters, Riley champions many of the themes he asserted in Sorry to Bother You, namely the importance of unionization and the deleterious effects of a capitalist system on the average person. The filmmaker takes these ideas to another level here, however, as he crafts not just a film, but a rousing call to action. The film’s infectious, almost frenzied energy culminates in an overt yet undeniably poignant message about the need for advocacy in a time in which our voices are continually suppressed by the powers that be. Backed to a score that sounds like Danny Elfman conducting circus music, Riley’s movie concludes by making the viewer want to hit the streets, attend a rally, and fight against wealth inequality. Many movies wish to provoke an audience into action, but few do so strikingly as I Love Boosters.
VERDICT: 7.5/10
I Love Boosters is an absorbing, endlessly creative, and fiercely original cinematic event. Boots Riley follows up Sorry to Bother With You with a film unafraid to go bizarre with all manner of crazy ideas and visuals, while remarkably never becoming too heightened as to lose audience investment in its characters or story. An increasingly bizarre story that integrates teleportation, stop-motion animation, a demon, and all kinds of other wild concepts renders Riley’s sophomore effort a film unlike any you’ve seen before, albeit one that becomes a tad unwieldy at times. Keke Palmer leads an impressive ensemble that features LaKeith Stanfield in a standout role as a character worthy of his own spin-off. Palmer’s protagonist may undergo an underdeveloped character arc, but the film overcomes this shortcoming by converging on a conclusion that serves as a rousing call to action. In doing so, Riley crafts something bigger and more important than your average movie. Not only does he deftly elevate an Adult Swim-coded Robin Hood story to incredibly (and commendably) unusual heights, Riley manages to couple unabashed entertainment value with a poignant message we all need to take to heart.