In a parallel universe, in Oakland, a telemarketer goes from having nothing to having everything to losing it all over again when, in reality, he loses it all and then tries to gain it again.
Is it perplexed? So is the film… Before I write any review, I make sure not to read other reviews or critiques so I know for a fact that I am stating my point of view and my point of view alone. Sorry to Bother You is “Comedy” and is “Fantasy”, but it is not “Sci-Fi”. It looks like a fresh take on Charlie Kaufman’s way of thinking, topped up with Boots Riley’s unique approach. Before watching it, the range of comments I had heard spanned from “genius” to “moronic” and from “amazing” to “horrendous”. So, chances are that you will either love it or loathe it. Here’s what I think…
Cassius Green represents the number of times you have asked yourself, “Why does no one see how wrong the world is”? At first, he sees it. Then he becomes part of it. And then he wakes up, gets out, and does something about it. Lakeith Stanfield is brilliant as Cassius who lives in a surrealistically psychedelic world, like ours, just more artistically – Kaufman-esque – portrayed. Well, in our world, Donald Trump is the President of the United States of America, a laughable joke from The Simpsons (1989), so not that much more…
Steve Lift (Armie Hammer) represents the system that feeds off greed. Our ambition to do something more with our lives, become something better, and change that system can fool even ourselves and become that very same greed that feeds it.
Sorry to Bother You parodies our world not because it wants to undermine it. Boots Riley comprehends the “If you want to tell people the truth, you’d better make them laugh or they’ll kill you” (George Bernard Shaw) mentality, and through a respectful, meaningful, and didactic parable, makes you laugh but also “see” how much work needs to be done so our world can be a tad more understood.
Last but not least, Detroit, who is none other than the one and only breathtaking and always dazzling woman and actress Tessa Thompson, represents love. In a subtle and artistic form, she has always been the one to prevent us from going astray and make us become the people that we always hoped we would be.
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