A team of boosters – people who steal from fashion stores and resell the product on the street – encounters surreal obstacles in its quest to take down a billionaire mogul in Boots Riley’s wild “I Love Boosters.”
For those among us who value subtlety in terms of visual storytelling and social commentary, “I Love Boosters” will inspire more revulsion than admiration. In the world of writer-director Riley, subtlety is for suckers, and he has created a singular, absurdist comedy that is a full-throated paean to the value of collective labor without sacrificing any of the surrealism for which he has become known.
Keke Palmer stars as Corvette, the ring leader of a group of boosters, who are people stealing from fashion stores and reselling the product on the street. While orchestrating her crime sprees, Corvette entertains dreams of becoming a fashion designer herself, with the mogul Christie Smith (Demi Moore) acting as her primary victim and her creative inspiration.
As Corvette’s boosting accelerates, Christie gives an interview to the media in which she viciously maligns the “urban” criminals threatening her business. Angrier than ever, Corvette commits to ruining Christie by any means necessary.
To say the film goes off the rails would suggest incorrectly that the story was ever on the rails. Even before our characters encounter the more fantastical elements of the story, we are cued into the funhouse chaos by the music of Tune-Yards, establishing carnival vibes that anticipate just how surreal the action will become.
Riley uses a brash, distinct filmmaking language to elevate his own screenplay, often building to punchlines that are purely visual. In one early scene, Palmer and Naomi Ackie are having a conversation filmed entirely in close-up while they meander down the aisles of a clothing store. When Riley finally cuts to a wide shot as they leave the store, we see Palmer looking like a pink Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, overladen with all of the stolen clothing. Riley’s control of information in every frame results in delirious jolts of comedy and sci-fi shock.
As mentioned, the social commentary is very on the nose in its pro-labor proselytizing, exploring how the fashion industry exploits workers at every level of the supply chain. Christie Smith vilifies the working-class hustlers stealing her product while defending her own intellectual theft as simple borrowing, taking a design developed by Corvette and using it to enhance her own wealth without acknowledging the work of the original artist. But while this messaging may be overdone, it is ultimately thematic window dressing for the absolutely insane antics onscreen. Believe me, the action that transpires will not fail to defy all audience expectations in its willingness to answer the call of the weird.
If I’m being coy about the science fiction elements of the story, it is only to preserve the magic of a first-time viewer experiencing the film’s deliberate escalation. Suffice to say that anybody expecting a straightforward comedy caper will instead be faced with cartoonish set design, reality-altering portals and a literal sex demon, among countless other oddities
The performances, particularly from Palmer and Ackie, keep the film emotionally grounded even as the story gets ever more fantastical. By acting as if they are in a straight drama, and refusing to play into the comedy, they make the comedy all the funnier and the drama all the more affecting.
Riley’s film is at its best as it escalates the delirious weirdness of its characters and world, and is, conversely, at its worst when it tries to overexplain its sci-fi conceit or wrap up its story in an emotionally and thematically neat way that betrays the genre-defying novelty at its core.
“I Love Boosters” is a dizzying and intoxicating experience, directed with visual panache by the confident and brash Riley. While I cannot guarantee everybody will enjoy this movie, I feel confident in guaranteeing that it will be unlike any other film you see this year.
“I Love Boosters” Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity, language throughout, and brief drug use. Running Time: 1 hour and 45 minutes. Director and Writer Boots Riley. Starring Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Poppy Liu, Eiza González, LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, Don Cheadle, Demi Moore. Genres: Adventure, Comedy, Crime, Drama, Sci-Fi.
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