Sorry to Bother You * (2018, Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Danny Glover, Armie Hammer) – Movie Review

Debut writer-director Boots Riley’s 2018 surreal satirical comedy Sorry to Bother You is a nice try, with ambition and intelligence behind it, but it is mostly strained and unamusing. It is pretty much a one-joke movie, so it gets boring and repetitive, and the script’s idea of a satire about greed, the state of America and racial harmony is lame and obvious at best. 

Lakeith Stanfield is quite appealing in a skilled performance as the hero Cassius Green, who is promoted to a Power Caller and discovers a magical key to professional success after being hired as a telemarketer by a couple of dodgy guys. Tessa Thompson is pleasant as his puzzled girlfriend Detroit. But favourite actors Danny Glover and Armie Hammer are completely wasted, with Hammer desperately over-doing his evil boss act as Steve Lift, straining the actor’s natural appeal.

Sorry to Bother You has its plus points early on but completely goes off the rails in the third act as the absurdist social satire turns to bizarre magical realism, and the comedy turns into sci-fi fantasy with crazy nightmarish horse-people monsters.

Also in the cast are Jermaine Fowler, Omari Hardwick, Terry Crews, Steven Yeun, Michael X Sommers and Robert Longstreet.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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