[ad_1]
When a young black telemarketer struggles in his new pathetic work on the ground floor, an old black gentleman working beside him says, "Let me tip you. Use your white voice. This trick transforms the young man, Cassius (Lakeith Stanfield), nicknamed Cash, literally soaring to success. Soon, a garish and golden elevator takes him to the upper floors of his business as one of his "Power Callers". well paid.
As a telemarketer, he asks economically weak people of all races to sell in slavery
In most movies, this intelligent premise would be enough to drive a funny comedy. In Sorry to Bother You, author-director Boots Riley builds layers of social commentary on this simple joke. He delivers a message on the misdeeds of racism and capitalism in a daring film in its visually dynamic and often hilarious form. By moving from realism to surrealism, he also becomes the latest in a series of movies and television series that effectively use fantasy to create shots about race and class.
– The sequel to The Jurassic World is a popcorn movie –
– BlacKkKlansman is a subversive triumph
– Solo is not the worst Star Wars movie – but close
The film begins in a brightly colored but credible version of Oakland, California, known in the United States as a funky, activist city. Cash wakes up next to his girlfriend, a performance artist named Detroit (Tessa Thompson). Almost nobody escapes from a cartoon name here, an early clue that even when it is realistic Sorry to bother you reaches you to the outrageous. Another clue is that Cash and Detroit's room is in his uncle's garage – not an attached apartment, but the space where a car should be. Any defective garage door opener suddenly destroys their privacy.
Riley skillfully introduces fantastic touches into Cash's familiar workplace. When he calls, he falls to the ground and lands in the kitchen or the guest's living room. (They do not see him there, but we do.) He urges them to sign a contract with Worry Free, a company that will house and feed people for the rest of their lives, in warehouse type dormitories, in exchange for working in his factories. Money essentially asks economically weak people of all races to sell themselves into slavery.
Money can be confused, confrontational or determined, but Stanfield always makes it remarkably credible, often in situations that defy reality. He holds the film together with a combination of naturalness and charisma, which he's only been able to hint at supporting roles in the film Get Out and the Atlanta TV series.
Cash's white voice looks a lot like Ned Flanders's The Simpsons
Riley constantly pushes beyond the simplistic. At first, Cash questions the board to use his white voice saying, "People say I already speak with a white voice." The older colleague (played by Danny Glover) tells him, "Not white enough" , all this records as true. The true "white voice" uses species so effectively as a mild-mannered Middle-American suburb dad. Looped in David Cross's film, his voice is very similar to The Simpsons' The Ned Flanders.
Across the Mirror
Although Riley 's themes are blunt, his flair and witty storyline keep the film from becoming a controversy or a screed. Sorry to bother you is his first feature film, but he is known as a musician with hip-hop band The Coup for 20 years (their songs are on the soundtrack), studied film at the university and is a veteran music videos. This experience shows in his assured visuals, which range from rough Oakland streets to the bright minimalist Cash apartment quickly moving in.
Although Riley's narrative approach is conventional, his use of images is inspired. The crate car is so decrepit that there is no windshield wiper. Driving in the rain, he takes his hand out of the side window and pulls a rope back and forth across the forehead – one of the many little gags of sight. More substantially, when he talks about members of his high school football team, who have continued to meander through life, a team photograph appears. Later, a simple flash of memory brings back the picture and instantly reveals why Cash is so determined to succeed.
Sorry to bother you is so strong that it's easy to ignore how badly his secondary characters are subscribed.
His success is fraught with obstacles, of course. A colleague named Squeeze (Steven Yeun of The Walking Dead) is trying to join forces with Detroit as an ally. Money needs money, but what part of its identity is it willing to sacrifice to obtain it?
This question becomes more acute when the dystopian and futuristic plot gives way to pure fantasy. Armie Hammer arrives as Steve Lift, the eccentric CEO of Worry Free wearing a suit jacket with a sarong. He makes a crazy proposal to Cash, skipping the story away from his realistic roots, but not far from his central themes.
This strategy of using the surreal to make subtle social comment is one of the most powerful on the screen today. . Donald Glover uses it brilliantly in Atlanta, which featured great crocodiles as pets and Glover (in white makeup) as a black musician similar to Michael Jackson named Teddy Perkins. The surrealist is used sparingly in dream footage and memories in Blindspotting by Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, a comedy with a serious soul about a black man trying to avoid trouble in his last days of probation. As in Sorry to disturb you, these imaginary episodes of racial prejudices become more visceral than realistic dialogue could have been.
Sorry to bother you is so strong in so many ways that it's easy to ignore his major fault. The characters around Cash are seriously subscribed, which is particularly disappointing in the case of Detroit. Thompson is still dynamic on the screen, but Detroit should be more than a cardboard figure that represents rebellion as an alternative to selling.
Thompson has a disturbing episode, a performance piece in which Detroit asks the public to throw things away. At her place. In the world of Sorry to Bother You, one of the most popular television programs is a game show that asks participants to be hit in the face. These scenes of violence as entertainment may seem like an aside, but they are among the many currents that inform the alternative reality not so different from the film.
Such disconcerting moments are deliberate and rare. Riley judiciously balances seriousness and comedy in a film that happens to be both fierce and extremely entertaining.
★★★★ ☆
If you want to comment on this story or anything else seen on BBC Culture, go to our Facebook page or send us a message on Twitter .
And if you like this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter titled "If you only read 6 things this week". A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Capital and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.
[ad_2]
Source link
