I Love Boosters and Boots Riley are Wilder than Ever!

SXSW is known as a festival serving as a cinematic launchpad for surreal, genre-bending, and experimental cinema, often blending dark comedy, psychological thriller elements, and bizarre aesthetics. Enter Boots Riley with his cuckoo for cocoa puffs sophomore premiere of I Love Boosters.

Riley has been know to push the limits of one’s imagination and the ideology of the status quo with such projects as his debut flick Sorry To Bother You (2018) and I’m a Virgo (2023). However, this one is on a whole other level.

Let’s break down the word booster..shall we?   The technical definition is to be a source of encouragement. Yet, the slang version (applicable in this case) simply means a shoplifter or petty thief who steals goods from stores for financial gain flipping the merchandise for a profit.

Watch out “Bling Ring,”  here comes the Velvet Gang! Corvette (Keke Palmer), Sade (Naomi Ackie) and Mariah (Taylour Paige) squat in an abandoned chicken restaurant make a living as boosters around the Bay Area quickly becoming a thorn in the side of fashion mogul Christie Smith (Demi Moore). The discourse blows both ways after Christie steals one of Corvette’s designs. So, as retaliation, the trio plots to boost the designer’s entire inventory, sparking a movement among retail and factory workers.

Boots Riley is wilder than ever with I Love Boosters making statements on the fashion industry, sweatshops, unfair wages and price gauging of designers who may or may not have original ideas.

The filmmaker  beautifully and unapologetically exploits and breaks down every iota of how the rich get richer, while the poor keep getting poorer. My. man even gets into the semantics of physical attraction versus a mental connection between men and women.  Do women see men as demons when things go sideways?  Do men only view women as a piece of flesh to control and manipulate any way they see fit? As much as I was entertained (and in some instances appalled) by this premise it took me out the the main story line for all the wrong reasons and (in my humble opinion) wasted the amazingly gifted Lakeith Stanfield.

Keke Palmer Taylour Paige and Naomie Ackie make a tantalizing trio of comedy gold. Poppy Liu as a Chinese factory worker seeking her own revenge; Eiza González as a punk retail worker with plans to unionize and Will Poulter as Christie’s flamboyant, control freak, ass kissing store manager round out a stellar and strong cast.

Christopher Glass’ production design, Lizbeth Ayala’s set decorations coupled with out of this world costume designs from Shirley Kurata and hair/makeup geniuses  Jessi Dean and Jeremy Dell provide a visual feast that many will attempt to replicate.  However, these talents can not be replicated or duplicated in any area!

I Love Boosters is a middle finger to the status quo proving here are always consequences to our words and action intentional or not.