[usr 4.5]
In an alternate present-day version of Oakland, telemarketer Cassius Green discovers a magical key to professional success, propelling him into a macabre universe.
There’s a point in which this movie ceases to be specifically about Cassius Green’s climb to power and becomes as cartoonish as it is satirical. In one moment we go from regular corporate conspiracy to half-human half-horse hybrids. What’s so amazing is that even though it’s a hard left turn into completely unmentioned territory, the movie rolls with this move and continues to one hell of a story.
Lakeith Stanfield plays Cassius Green, a down-on-his-luck young black man trying to make it as a telemarketer in Oakland, California. His girlfriend, Detroit ( Tessa Thompson), plays a protest artist while Steven Yeun, Jermaine Fowler, and Danny Glover play comrade telemarketers organizing a strike. Ironically David Cross does Cassius’ white-man voice. Armie Hammer rounds the cast out in a great performance as the devious corporate executive Steve Lift. As Cassius ascends the ladder to success, he faces dilemma after dilemma when his coworkers strike, his girlfriend protests the products he’s selling, and he realizes just how terrible the company he works for really is. Cue Equi-Sapiens.
The movie is outlandish sure, but always living a parodic version of our world so close to home it’s easy to mistake as genuine. The movie’s comedic tone dictates the world around it by hyperbolizing elements we see every day: a telemarketer’s union, football players who never stop playing, a golden elevator, VIP lounges crammed with people, Armie Hammer’s cocaine-induced mania, and horsemen. Everybody in this movie knows the world they live in is outlandish, but their reactions vary from fighting against it, riding the lunacy all the way to the top and some just floating along the insanity stream. Either way, you’re in for a treat.
What makes this movie stand out (aside from its stellar cast and bizarre script) is its colorful cinematography. A splash of color invades every frame whether it’s the deep purple/green combos of Armie Hammer’s mansion or the oranges and reds of Cassius’ favorite bar the film drips with color. Add on to that some of the funniest ‘drop in on people’ sequences ever shot about telemarketing and you stack up a visually kinetic movie with the edit cutting rapidly to cover so much.
Boots Riley filled “Sorry to Bother You” to the brim with tart commentary about a large number of things with a surprising narrative coherence. When Cassius starts the movie, asking how anything matters, he finds meaning in his work (something he’s good at) and justifies his moral actions the deeper he sinks. When Steven Yeun espouses about apathy, it’s only a short one minute or two but something profound gets laid at your feet. Everything from the black experience to our hyperbolic news cycles to slave labor workforce to general population apathy gets touched on in one way or another. It feels so full of meaning and intent the movie needs to be digested for hours afterward reminiscing on different scenes and moments trying to unpack the information.
I loved this movie for being outlandish, bizarre, and weird. Just when you think it’s a zany movie about the price of success and moral decay, you delve into a whole new world full of horse-people with, as funny as it sounds, horse dicks. For a movie to layer in horse dick jokes and still stay on point, shows an adept method of filmmaking both economical and impressive.
Available on Blu-ray & DVD October 23rd
