Releases on Friday, July 6th in New York and Los Angeles
Sorry To Bother You is Oakland rapper Boots Riley’s directorial debut, the one he wowed audiences with at the Sundance Film Festival this past January. On the eve of it’s release, the word is, that it is ready to wow audiences when it opens in New York and LA on Friday, July 6th, with a wide release on July 13th. Riley calls his film “an absurdist dark comedy with magical realism and science fiction inspired by the world of telemarketing.” Well put your party hat on and get with the program. There is a new film genre in town.
The storyline is presented in an alternate reality of present-day Oakland, Calif., where telemarketer Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield) finds himself in a macabre universe after he discovers a magical key that leads to material glory. As Green’s career begins to take off, his friends and co-workers organize a protest against corporate oppression. Cassius soon falls under the spell of Steve Lift, a cocaine-snorting CEO who offers him a salary beyond his wildest dreams.
Magic realism? That will get the attention of Latino filmgoers as “magic realism” was the creation of literary greats such as Jorge Luis Borges, Juan Rulfo, and Gabriel García Márquez. However, that is not the only appeal to the number-one film going audience. For one it is being called a “house party of a movie” by Vulture.com and “as deranged as it is politically engaged” (Variety) and it has a score of 94% on RottenTomatoes.com. But there is more.
In an advance screening of the film a week ago, a panel of Latinx influencers not only really seemed to enjoy the film but were there to discuss any parallels between the Latino and African American community highlighted in the film.
The panel was moderated by film critic Carlos Aguilar, who right at the top commented on the films ability to point out how capitalism dehumanizes people. Panelist included, radio hosts (Locutora Radio) – Ariana Rodriguez Zertuche @LaDiosaFemme, Mala Munoz @Mala Muñoz, Artivist Soraya Em of @godmother213, Diego Sepúlveda UCLA Labor Center DRC Director, and @LAANE Community Organizer Agustín Cabrera.
What Zertuche gleaned was the underlying arch of violence shown against women throughout the film; while Cabrera talked about how the topic of unionization is weaved into the story pointing out that crossing a union picket line is not as black and white as one would think.
The issue of gentrification plaguing many communities, such as in the Eastside of L.A. and in Oakland was were some of the similarities between these communities. Cabrera talked about film showing the solidarity among the workers, who if anything, still have the ability to unite, exposing the inequality and the pervasiveness of big corporations are in our daily lives and how they impact these communities. Other issues like code switching, and the representation of Afro-Latinas (Tessa Thompson who plays Cassius’ artist-activist girlfriend is part Panamanian), were also brought up. It was a lively and thoughtful conversation, however the overall feeling from the audience and panel was that this film is outrageously funny and “way out there”.
In a world that is over saturated with content, off kilter films like this, although, not as polished as your big budgeted film, sometimes they make you laugh the hardest and maybe rattle your brain a bit, enough to make you go “Hmmmm”.
Cast: Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Armie Hammer, Terry Crews, Steven Yeun, Omari Hardwick, Jermaine Fowler, and Danny Glover.
Distributed by: Annapurna Pictures
Producers: Nina Yang Bongiovi, Forest Whitaker, Charles King, George Rush, Jonathan Duffy, Kelly GlennWilliams
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