In I Love Boosters, the socially conscious rapper-turned-filmmaker Boots Riley creates a unique urban sci-fi fantasy of a universe not unlike Big Trouble in Little China and Attack the Block. Just like the aforementioned pictures, this one takes place in an alternate universe where portal travel and aliens exist side by side with humanity. To speak in detail about the plot would be fruitless; there are too many characters, both real and otherwise, who keep getting in each other's way, with fashion being their shared element. But one thing is consistent: Riley's uncompromising criticism of modern, unchecked capitalism.
2018's Sorry to Bother You (Riley's debut feature) was a more clever and timely satire about exploitation of workers in the telemarketing industry. In contrast, Boosters is at times convoluted, overwritten, and overstuffed. By the third act, when the skinless men appeared, I was scratching my head as to what Riley was thinking. Of course, it all would've been forgiven if the movie was actually funny; but alas, it isn't. Not nearly enough, anyway.
☆☆
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