This is a very difficult review to write. Reviews are here to provide judgement of a movie and convince the reader of whether or not a film is deserving of their money and time and attention. A review serves to give a brief plot synopsis, a bit of analytical insight of the film, and breaking down what made the film good, bad or middling. I can't really do any of that with Sorry To Bother You. Plain and simple - this movie is smarter than I am. Yes, I am able to see the messages behind the film, but much like Get Out there's an overall theme that's being explored, but the bigger theme is pieced together like a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle and each piece has its own social commentary to compile the bigger picture. That's what Sorry To Bother You is like. After I finally understood what rapper and now writer/director Boots Riley was conveying with his "big picture" commentary, I kept looking for the little messages in individual scenes and I'd say more than half of them went over my head. Sorry To Bother You is not your typical Hollywood summer fare and the movie will be lost on most audiences. But for those it can actually speak to, it's a very important film.
Sorry To Bother You, much like Get Out, is going to stay with you for a long time. I've been reading interviews with director Riley ever since walking out of the film to get more explanation of scenes that may have gone over my head, or I simply just misunderstood - and it turns out there's a lot. You remember when you realized in Get Out that the simple scene of Alison Williams' character eating dry Fruit Loops and sipping a glass of milk meant she was literally separating colors from whites? Yeah. That sort of subtle imagery is layered throughout nearly every scene of Sorry To Bother You (and it is, by no means, a subtle movie). It's fascinating to read Riley's explanations for certain scenes and directorial decisions. However, some scenes, he doesn't explain. Some scenes he simply WON'T explain because he needs it to mean something different to each viewer. There's an artistic beauty to the film that requires your own brain to think critically about what the director has conveyed to you. For me, I keep thinking about it. For others, (like the couple walking out of the theater next to us discussing the film--), it's just "a dumb movie" that you can't "unsee".
I absolutely refuse to reveal anything about the movie to you. And if you've seen the trailer, you might've already seen too much. There's certainly an expectation you'll have entering the movie that will be demolished within a half hour of watching the film until it makes a hard right turn into what-the-fuck's-ville. The thing about the movie is it has a lot to say, but it doesn't say it lazily. It uses satire and an absurdist point of view to represent these impassioned views Boots Riley has. If you take what you see at face value - yeah, it's kinda dumb and doesn't make any sense. But to those people, Andy Warhol just liked to draw soup cans and Bansky is just a glorified tagger. If you haven't seen a trailer, I encourage you to enter it blindly. That's what Riley himself wants. He's even quoted in an interview in The Wrap as saying, "there are a lot of movies where people say you enjoy it more if you know
as little as possible, but I really want that for the audience.” For one, this will limit your expectations and a lot of scenes that are in the trailer will be fresh and hit harder for you.
Here's the even more difficult part for me - there's a difference between something being important and smart and subversive and culturally relevant and insightful-- and being enjoyable. I didn't really ENJOY this movie so much as I was fascinated by it. Most of the "laughs" (because it's being marketed as a comedy - but it's more of a dark satire) are in the trailer and the rest of the subject matter is a little David Lynch-ian to go "Man! I can't wait to see that again!" (Please don't let the comparison to David Lynch deter you from the film, it's just got that kind of stomach-churning weirdness to it that's common in Lynch movies... understand that this movie is wholly Boots Riley's.) The film is a different approach to a message about disenfranchisement told in an original and absurd way, but I don't know if I really enjoyed watching it. I appreciate it, I think it needs to be seen, and it certainly deserves the praise it's received thus far, but if I ever plan on watching it again, it'll be so I can challenge myself to find the understanding that Riley wants me to have with the film. I encourage you all - if you're up for your own challenge - to check it out so I can hear what interpretations you had while watching what I can certainly call the most original movie of the entire year.
B
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