"Sorry to Bother You": I'm More Bored than Bothered

In January 2018, LaKeith Stanfield, rapper and tv star (Atlanta), released a rap video  in which he ridiculed "fags" and disapproved of a clothing style as "gay shit."  A few days later, his movie Sorry to Bother You premiered.

Way to drum up audience interest!

The writer/director is Boots Riley, who has very few other film credits. He's primarily a rapper and pro-communism activist.

Communists are not usually gay-friendly, presuming that gay people are products of capitalist false consciousness.  After the Revolution, they will no longer feel the need to reject heterosexuality.

The rest of the cast doesn't seem particularly woke to the oppression of LGBT persons.

So I went in expecting an endless homophobic tirade.

Soft-spoken slacker Cassius (LaKeith) lives with his struggling-artist girlfriend Detroit in his uncle's garage. The uncle is played by Terry Crews, who has an uber-muscular physique but disapproves of gay parents.  We see him primarily yelling "Get a job" out of a second floor window.

So Cassius gets a job as a telemarketer, where he must endure inane pep talks and patronizing "we're a family" speeches from the management.  He learns to "use his white voice" and refer to squash games in order to increase his sales.  Most of his coworkers are black, but he has a meet-cute with Squeeze(Stephen Yeung),who asks him out on a date.

What?

Soon he's going to clubs with Squeeze and introducing him to his bestie, Salvador (Jermaine  Fowler,left).

What?

At a demonstration for workers' rights, Cassius is hit in the head   (which makes the rest of the movie seem like a fever dream).  He is somehow propelled to top management, where he telemarkets to CEOs and gains multi-million dollar sales.  He feels a bit guilty because he has to pass a picket line everyday, and his old friends think of him as a traitor, but he likes the money.

In case we don't get it, there are lots of other instances of exploitation.

Everyone watches a game show involving contestants getting beat up.

Performance artist Diana DeBauchery invites people to throw blood on her.

CEO Steve Lift (Armie Hammer) has introduced a system of a lifelong job contract, with room and board provided at the factory (this is not slavery, Steve insists).

We're already living in a heavy-handed "Workers of the world, unite!" parable, but now things get really weird (unless this is a fever dream). 

Steve Lift is also building human-horse hybrids, equisapiens, who will be stronger and more docile than humans.

Cassius is invited to transform, and infiltrate the equisapien community as a strike-buster.  ("You'll have a horse cock!" is a major selling point.)

Ok, I get it.  The owners of the means of production treat the workers as objects.  Marxism 101.  But does any job really require horse strength anymore?

By turns boring and WTF weird, this movie reminds me of Brazil (which I also hated).

Beefcake:  LaKeith takes his shirt off.  The skinniest dude ever!

We get to see some of the equisapiens' horse-sized cocks.

Gay subtexts:  This movie takes place in an utterly gay-free San Francisco.

There are one or two inclusive comments:  "Go out to the party, find someone, and get laid!" instead of "find a woman!".

And the Cassius-Squeeze subtext romance? It falls apart almost as soon as it begins, when Squeeze starts courting Cassius' girlfriend.

I'll give it a D.