Meet Boots Riley’s Revolutionary Vision in ‘Sorry to Bother You’

From his musical exploits with The Coup to ‘Sorry to Bother You,’ prepare yourself for Boots Riley’s emotionally-charged activist art.

In this day and age, activism has reached an unprecedented level of mainstream consciousness and saturation in all aspects of the media. We read about it in the news, see campaigns on social media, and we’ve even seen some of the effects of political consciousness in the entertainment we consume.

All art is political, and the channels through which these views are disseminated should be continually diversified. Films like Get Out and Black Panther made waves in recent years due to the vital messages embedded in their narratives paired with a heavy dose of mainstream appeal. They are fundamentally different movies – as disparate as a low-budget horror movie and a Marvel tentpole will always be – but they come from the same spirit of propelling the unique voices of the marginalized to the forefront.

Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You absolutely fits into this mold, too, in its own vibrantly disruptive way, although that also feels like a serious understatement. Here we have the debut feature film of the man best known as the frontman of political rap group The Coup, so what else could we have expected?

A featurette from Sorry to Bother You distributor Annapurna Pictures, which you can watch below, tilts the spotlight towards the filmmaker (and “teacher, activist, musician, and author”). Although it’s a brief clip, we’re treated to a definitive taste of what Riley’s ambitious vision for Sorry to Bother You is going to be like.

And indeed, Riley asks ambitious questions about performativity and success in his film and wouldn’t settle for anything else than a complete and honest portrayal of every aspect of the story. Humor had to be anchored by characters and their relationships, which then had to be propped up by the reality of their circumstances — marginalized or otherwise. The wacky images of Sorry to Bother You find power in the layered nature of the narrative.

As Riley recently told Pitchfork in rather succinct terms, he didn’t make Sorry to Bother You only to “[say] something cute” and vapid. Instead, the heart drives the artistry. He echoed a similar idea in the aforementioned IndieWire interview, too, by questioning the usefulness of allegory as a gateway to radical change if a film only tells narratives in broad strokes.

And that’s what it means to meet Boots Riley. You can find glorious fun in empowerment and be cheeky about political engagement, but it has to be real, it has to be pointed, and it has to help someone. Touted by FSR’s John DiLillo as “one of the best movies of the year,” Sorry to Bother You sports an undeniable sense of visual adventurism and experimentation that continues to bust open doors for activist conversation in film. And it all starts with the man himself.

Sorry to Bother You hits cinemas on July 6th.

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