Sorry to Bother You has been called "wildly inventive" and "brilliantly outrageous" by critics in the past few months. I agree with both of those remarks, but not in the good way. I am so divided about whether I actually enjoy this film: it's either a ridiculous social comedy or a dark, satirical comment on American capitalism. Maybe it's both? Who knows. Unfortunately, I'm leaning more towards not liking it because of the film's main issue of failing to get its message across while providing an engaging story.
The first time I saw the trailer for this film, I was instantly hooked by the cast and premise alone. Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Steven Yeun, and Armie Hammer are incredible in their roles of Cassius, Detroit, Squeeze, and Steve Lift, respectively. All of their performances were great (but not astounding) and they did make me really care about their characters. I especially loved Stanfield's Cassius Green. His character went through the most development in this film and accompanied with the writing, made him a fantastic lead. Armie Hammer was the other standout, as his antagonistic CEO provided a great contrast to our lead and his humor was utilized very well.
Doug Emmett's cinematography was decent as well, as it kept me very engaged. Some of my favorite shots included when Cassius was calling his customers and his desk "fell into" their homes. This was so clever and I appreciated the focus on visual storytelling. One of the most memorable aspects of this film, however, was the aesthetic and the design. I loved the mildly afrofuturistic yet Californian style that the director, Boots Riley, used in his first feature film. I can definitely see this style becoming a trademark of Riley's, but unfortunately, he seems to favor style over substance. I adored how the first hour or so of the film was going, with Cassius's new telemarketing job and the clear message of capitalism's destruction. There was some fantastic and original humor as the story was so cleverly written, but the third act threw me for the wildest loop that I did NOT see coming.
The biggest issue with this film was its inability to clearly express a strong message. The main metaphor throughout the entire movie was obviously capitalism, except it wasn't really a metaphor, more of a wake-up call. The writing had no problem with pounding this into the audience's heads and I feel like it could have been a lot more subtle. There were also other metaphors including racism and self-identity that were introduced, but these many messages did not blend well together. The pacing was also very poorly handled, because even though the movie was an hour and 45 minutes, it felt much longer than necessary. This also made me feel very uneasy during the entire film, but I assume that was the intended purpose.
If you thought that this film was an extremely smart take on capitalism, would you PLEASE explain to me why Riley thought the horse-human hybrids were a smart choice? I understand that this is an alternate Oakland where science-fiction madness is more understandable, but the entire horse plot was too over-the-top. I feel that there could have been a different device for displaying how ruthlessly cruel Lift was to his employees. The fact that he literally made his workers snort coke that transformed them into Bojack Horseman in order to increase productivity was ridiculous. I originally thought that after Cassius had snorted the coke and saw the horses, he would sober up and realize what he was doing was wrong and go back to the lower level telemarketing to turn his life around. But that wasn't the case, as even he eventually turned into one of the horses. This was in the last few shots of the film, and I honestly feel that they could have been left out. Cassius turning into one of the hybrids was so off-putting and abrupt, and did nothing for the overarching message. Tessa Thompson's Detroit also had some strange development through the movie. The writing did not make me care about her art show subplot in the slightest and I feel that her character could have been grown a bit more. Also, the romantic subplot between her and Squeeze was very predictable and nonchalant, which made no sense for their passionate characters.
Whatever your opinion on the handling of the messages is, there is no debate that this film will become a modern cult classic. Sorry to Bother You is indeed an original idea with boundless potential, but that was unfortunately wasted on an unclear premise. It was, however, still a wild ride that I recommend watching. And if you love it, awesome! If you're not as enthusiastic about it and have to take some Excedrin afterwards, then join the club.
My Rating: ★★★
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