Sorry To Bother You

[Ezee E]

IMDB

[Ezee E]

I should preface this thread by saying, "Just see it. You'll do yourself a disservice by reading this thread... like at all, until you've seen it."

[Dukefrukem]

Will do!

[TGM]

... Well this was just about the most bizarre damn movie I've seen this year so far. o.O

[Ivan Drago]

... Well this was just about the most bizarre damn movie I've seen this year so far. o.O

True story. It's if mother! were made by a collaboration between Michel Gondry and Spike Lee and then some. I definitely loved it but I need to digest everything, maybe even see it again before even thinking about unpacking its powerful imagery, social commentary, genre blending unique visual style and turns for the gonzo absurdity. Phenomenal stuff.

[Ezee E]

So yeah.

A few days later, and I'm so glad that I saw this without reading any reviews, tweets, and barely paying attention to the preview. I'm a big Lakeith Stanfield fan, and went in simply for him.

SPOILER-FREE, there's an energy in this movie that's missing from new directors. Anyone can make a good-looking movie these days, but to be able to tell a story that feels fresh, techniques that aren't completely rehashed (there are certainly Gondry feels), and also sticks the landing at the end. Physical, absurdist, and satirical comedy all at play. Boots Riley does it. Everyone's on their a-game here, including some actors that I didn't even realize would be in this.

[Spinal]

This is definitely a filmmaker to watch, but for me, this film is good not great. You can definitely tell it's a first film. The laughs are there, but inconsistent. The pacing drags at times. Still, witty stuff and will likely be memorable.

[Mal]

This has some really great ideas and while the end result is satisfying, the script when drawing its characters isn't biting as it could have been. Nevertheless, its definitely striking film in is grasp on current issues and painting a unique canvas of this strange, familiar world. Cast is all pretty good and I'd watch it again because there's enough good stuff going on that I'm curious if there'd be more to find on another viewing. The one thing I appreciate the most is that I never really knew where it was going and I can't think of any other films to compare it to.

[Henry Gale]

I feel so elated and spoiled that I got to see this, Eighth Grade, Leave No Trace and M:I - Fallout all in the past week. And not only was this my favourite of those, but very likely my favourite film of the whole year thus far.

I don't think a film that's as exceptional, fascinating and vivacious as this needs to be perfect -- and it isn't! -- but what makes it excel is its gorgeous audacity, consistent stylistic craft, and dark, care-free sense of humour, all woven together with such a clear point of view, both visually, narratively and thematically with such a unique blend of social themes and Frankenstein'd subverted genre tropes.

It's a movie I will recommend to everyone as long as they ask me what they should see. I don't care if it ends up absolutely not being their thing, or if they have no idea what it was they even watched by the end of it, because I'll know (and deep down, hopefully they will too) that they've seen something vital and beautifully inspired, that's so unlike everything else out there right now.

Absolutely loved it.

[Pop Trash]

I'm not sure it sticks the landing. I wish Boots had ended it about two scenes earlier. I think he should have had a Taxi Driver style ending in which everything circles back to the "normalcy" of the beginning, but with the knowledge that the main character and audience have of all the fucked-up stuff that preceded it. The ending would be more powerful re: capitalism in the sense that the main character goes back to work for the corporation knowing all that he knows, but shrugging his sholders and dealing with it anyway, because "hey, I got bills to pay." I think Boots wanted a more "revolutionary" ending, and it's his movie ultimately.

That said, it's hella rad for Oakland to have its own Repo Man / Brazil / Girl 6 / Being John Malkovich / Idiocracy. It's also funny that so much of this isn't that different from the day-to-day craziness of Oakland (where I live) that you see every day. I've been to performance art pieces like the one Tessa Thompson's character performs here.

[MadMan]

That was amazing. And I am still thinking about it days later.

[DavidSeven]

I would echo the sentiments voiced by a few others here. I appreciate what it was trying to achieve, but I think this film had the potential to be better in the hands of a filmmaker with a stronger grasp of cinematic language. There are some inspired bits, but I don’t the film ever finds a comfortable balance between its conventional and absurdist elements. That said, it’s undeniably a solid and interesting effort by a first-time director.

[Idioteque Stalker]

Just because you can doesn't mean you should. A million ideas, most of them half-baked. You don't have to fit it all into one film.

[Peng]

The feeble punchline ending dilutes this somewhat. I also wish for a bit more emotional connection to the characters so the satire can sting properly, which is one of the few times I feel the film's messy nature short-shrifts them in favor of the world-building instead. But the overall messiness of disparate targets and aims accumulates into a truly galvanizing, exhilarating whole. Its arresting absurdism draws blood at regular intervals from being just one or two steps ahead of our current climate (I flashbacked more than once during this film to some tweets from ex-Amazon labor workers). 8/10

[Grouchy]

This stands firmly in the camp of movies I wish I liked more because they are so original and have so much to offer, yet don't quite "stick the landing", to use the parlance of our times. I think it's very difficult to make a zany, outlandish film that does something crazy with every scene and maintain an emotional center at the same time. Harold and Maude does this trick quite well - this is a noble first effort but not quite a success. Yet it's hard to condemn such a distinctive effort to do something different from the norm and tackle themes which are so essential to what I imagine the Trump era feels like for the average citizen.