Sorry To Bother You. (15.)
Directed by Boots Riley.
Starring Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Terry Crews, Jermaine Fowler, Danny Glover and Armie Hammer. 112 mins.
I think we could say that this socio-political satire is heavy-handed, but we live in heavy-handed times so it probably levels out. Plus, writer/ director Riley's debut is heavy-handed in a very light and casual way.
Cassius Green (Stansfield) is flat broke so gets a job as a telemarketer, ringing up strangers to try and sell them rubbish. Then he is advised to try it with a white voice (provided by David Cross) and he becomes a great success. This though brings him into contact with the company Worry Free, run by Hammer, which is thriving by introducing working conditions that are consensual slavery.
Though it isn't in the same league, the film has an airy surrealism loosely reminiscent of Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry, or last year's Downsizing. It has plenty of visual invention and wild ideas but is a little hazy about what to do with them. It's about 90% there and if it could just have made the focus a bit sharper it could've been something quite special.
Directed by Boots Riley.
Starring Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Terry Crews, Jermaine Fowler, Danny Glover and Armie Hammer. 112 mins.
I think we could say that this socio-political satire is heavy-handed, but we live in heavy-handed times so it probably levels out. Plus, writer/ director Riley's debut is heavy-handed in a very light and casual way.
Cassius Green (Stansfield) is flat broke so gets a job as a telemarketer, ringing up strangers to try and sell them rubbish. Then he is advised to try it with a white voice (provided by David Cross) and he becomes a great success. This though brings him into contact with the company Worry Free, run by Hammer, which is thriving by introducing working conditions that are consensual slavery.
Though it isn't in the same league, the film has an airy surrealism loosely reminiscent of Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry, or last year's Downsizing. It has plenty of visual invention and wild ideas but is a little hazy about what to do with them. It's about 90% there and if it could just have made the focus a bit sharper it could've been something quite special.
