Sorry to Bother You
(2018)Lakeith Stanfield (Get Out) leads this oddball comedy as a black telemarketer who discovers the secret to professional success - putting on a white voice. Also stars Tessa Thompson (Thor: Ragnarok), Steven Yeun (Okja), Armie Hammer (Call Me By Your Name), and the almighty Terry Crews.
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Directed by Boots Riley (feature debut)
Starring Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Steven Yeun, Armie Hammer, Terry Crews, Patton Oswalt, Danny Glover, Omari Hardwick, Jermaine Fowler, David Cross
Written by Boots Riley
Out Now (On-Demand,
DVD or Blu-Ray)
On Demand, DVD & Blu-Ray
Available from 6 providers
Flicks Review
BY Steve Newall Flicks Writer
An astonishing, surreal, shit-stirring satire, Sorry to Bother You is a f-cking trip of a film. Its hectic, heady mix of disparate elements fuses together into a whole that defies description as it smartly, often cynically, critiques racism, classism, late-stage capitalism, assimilation, conformity, art and commerce, romance, consumerism, activism—you name it (ok, white America’s obsession with black men being hung like horses also makes the list).... More
Some may see Boots Riley’s darkly comic directorial debut as a muddle, but Sorry to Bother You functions as a scream of release, letting loose a pent-up torrent of frustrations about contemporary existence. It's messy, it's all over the place, and it needs to be in order to come close to capturing the chaos its characters—and audience—are grappling with, never sitting still long enough for the viewer to have a firm grip, never letting them be comfortable.
So, so, much more than the “black man succeeds as telemarketer by putting on a white voice” comedy that it has sometimes been pitched as, the film’s an audacious journey from below the breadline to the heights and through the bowels of corporate America. Starting the film unemployed, Cassius "Cash" Green (Lakeith Stanfield, in an overdue lead role that builds on strong performances in Get Out and TV’s Atlanta) finds himself a job as a telemarketer and, yes, he does find success by using his “white voice”, and yes, that’s funny, but before long he’s being sucked into some kind of Pynchonian nightmare—and that’s to say, aren’t we all?
Tessa Thompson offers up a typically commanding performance as Cash’s girlfriend, saved from manic pixie dream girl status through her formidable independence; Cash’s telemarketing sweatshop supervisors are hilarious; and Armie Hammer steals scenes as an intensely-friendly, ultra-evil face of capitalist oppression—but this film really belongs to Riley’s alchemy of elements. One minute Sorry to Bother You will prompt belly laughs, the next it’ll prove unnerving as it casts 21st-century life in chillingly paranoid, post-modern terms. Along the way, it serves up a singular vision, one that words like “weird” or “eccentric” simply can’t do justice to.Hide
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Sorry to Bother You
BY Leaflemming nobody
It's untidy, it's confronting, it's in some ways a mess, but holy hell, this is one of the very few 2018 films we're still going to be talking about ten years from now. Bloody brilliant. I get the sense it won't stick around long. Don't let yourself miss it.
BY vt nobody
A first feature by musician Boots Riley this is a brilliant and bold satire about life, just a little way up the road from now. It has a few glitches but is really worth seeing if you like a cinematic adventure in this world, not the past, not on another planet but contemporary America after another year or two of Trump
BY PercyM superstar
It boasts clever ideas and originality, along with a number of prevailing, relevant themes, but struggles to properly execute them.
Showing 4 of 4 reviews. See all reviews
The Press Reviews
What the movie lacks in focus it makes up for in flipped-bird absurdity. Full Review
It's a hugely ambitious project that ultimately caves under the weight of its own artistic intentions, but that shouldn't stop this revolutionary statement from making its mark. Full Review
Director Boots Riley is a talent to watch, but his debut feature takes a kitchen sink approach to satire. Full Review
Rapper Boots Riley's first feature film shows a great deal of spirit and promise, and further secures Lakeith Stanfield as the one of the key performers of the moment. Full Review
Sorry to Bother You is a house party of a movie, some rooms more lively than others, some you wish you could spend more time in, some downright unforgettable in the best way. Full Review
While the filmmaking is raw, undisciplined and groaning under a cargo of self-conscious quirks, it scores points for originality and wacky creativity, which no doubt will earn it avid supporters. Full Review
Sorry to Bother You is ambitious and outrageous, but as much as Stanfield is a likeably hapless hero (like an African American version of Brazil's Sam Lowry), the film struggles to give its central characters authentic wants and desires. Full Review
Maintains a metaphorical approach that prevents it from ever being preachy. Full Review
One-part dystopian satire, one-part Faustian-morality tale, but mostly a hard-edged comedy/horror set in a world so absurd, it might just be the truth. Hugely recommended. Full Review
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