Sorry To Bother You

"Apple and oranges?" "More like apples and the Holocaust." That's a comparison that might make you baulk but there's a ring of truth to it in it's one-sidedness. The 1% tower over us. High society vs the proletariat. The haves and the have-nots. They cannot be compared to us. Sorry To Bother You makes no bones of this fact. In a world where the most powerful man in the world is also a 1%'er it rings especially true.

Cassius Green (Cash is green, subtle) wants a job. Living the way he does is miserable and any work will do. Regalview take him on and turn him into a telemarketing automaton. It's dehumanising stuff and he's not one bit good at it until he learns the secret to selling is to use "your white voice." His sales go through the roof and before long upper management are eyeing him up to be a power seller. Things are strange up top though. Very very strange.

Sorry To Bother You is a clever, surreal and justifiably angry film that takes aim at everything wrong with modern day society. The insidious evil will of capitalism. It's need to keep us inside the lines ("stick to the script" is the management mantra at Regalview). The dumbing down of media; everyone watches a show called "I Got The Shit Kicked Out Of Me" which is literally people getting beaten up live on tv, culture replaced by viral youtube sensations and internet memes. The proliferation of low paid work designed to keep the masses in debt forever and the racism still endemic in society despite claims to the contrary. None of it is subtly drawn, director Bootsy Collins knows a light touch doesnt work anymore so he blasts us with it. Right in the chops. The second Cassius starts to speak like a white man he instantly becomes unthreatening to the world around him. The white people he phones love him, middle management adore him and the world opens up to him. Money isn't an issue any more, he can live where he wants and drive what he wants. Very pointed stuff in a time when Black men are regularly gunned down by the police for the crime of not being white.

My only issue with it is the description of it being a comedy. It might claim to be but it's just not one bit funny at all. One moment with the world's most polite argument might raise a smile but apart from that the entertainment you'll glean from it is from it's intelligence, it's fearlessness, a willingness to cut right to the heart of debates raging worldwide. People of colour are still seen as a danger and capitalism is a huge catalyst for that. It's something most people don't want to hear but Bootsy Collins is going to tell them anyway, the title of the film being a nod to that. 

Lakeith Stanfield is immense in the lead role. A study in unfolding paranoia and eventually rage. He's great at drawing slightly off centre and interesting characters and his career has rightfully taken off in the last few years because of it. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend checking him out in Tv's Atlanta. Tessa Thompson is back again after last week's Creed II. She's once again the girlfriend of the leading character but once again finds ways to nearly outshine the lead with another interesting and daring performance. Can someone give her bigger roles please. Armie Hammer puts in a solid shift as the slimy face of the corporate world. All handsome and shiny and friendly but scratch the surface and it's all slithering filth underneath. There's that lovely subtlety again btw.

This is worth a watch. But don't go in expecting belly laughs. You won't get them. What you will get a biting satire of modern day life. One that will only get more prescient as it ages.